A quiet notice V2Melody closes at midnight on , Spanish time.

Closes

A note from Richard

V2Melody will close at midnight on 20 January 2028

This site has been a retirement project in musical poetry: poems chosen with care and set to music, offered freely for as long as it felt right to keep the garden open.

The work no longer holds the place it once did in my life. I have gone as far with it as I wish to go. Like a sand mandala, it was made to be completed and then released. I am not attached to its permanence, and I do not believe any of it needs to last beyond the time it was given. The poems were already here before I arrived and began to experiment with them. They will still be here when these musical experiments, and indeed myself, have been swept away, like the sand of a mandala. Nothing has been lost.

I want a simpler end to my life, days of simple love and enjoyment with my wonderful wife of 20 years. The work of maintaining a server, the monitoring, and the residual obligations that come with keeping a site alive no longer fit that life.

From 4 November 2026 I will not be adding new poems or musical poems to the site.

The experimental music I am making now is on my Suno profile. Those pieces stay there, and are not added to this site.

Until midnight on 20 January 2028, Spanish time, everything remains available exactly as it is. That is when my VPS server contract comes to an end, and it will not be renewed. After that, the server will be switched off and the site will disappear.

The Mandala Is Finished explains this more fully.

Thank you to anyone who found a poem, a track, or a quiet moment here.

The pleasure was in the making.

Richard


Theme Timeline

Pick a theme and see how often it shows up across 50-year cohorts of V2Melody poets. Bars are normalised so small cohorts don't get drowned out by large ones.

Choose a theme

— none — world life love death beauty nature self social beloved desire memory divine spiritual heart grief power romantic suffering woman light soul dead body loss pain music wind philosophical voice landscape hope religious spring flowers sorrow children water faith bird lover rose silence mortality domestic presence childhood sound earth past consciousness truth dream women irish eyes flower garden mind rain lovers

“music” across the centuries

Related terms Include related catalogue terms in the chart (each poem counted once per era, even if it has several tags).
musician 1 poem

Bar length = percentage of poems in that cohort whose critique surfaced this theme. Click an era to focus the poem list below.

pre-1500 0 / 30 BCE 1 / 12 1500s 2 / 12 1550s 8 / 93 1600s 17 / 183 1650s 1 / 60 1700s 0 / 36 1750s 2 / 165 1800s 19 / 699 1850s 19 / 966 1900s 42 / 1143 1950s 0 / 15

Sample poems · click an era above to focus

Ode II.11
Available versions

Ode II.11

by Quintus Horatius Flaccus · Latin

Quintus Horatius Flaccus portrait

8 December 65 BC - 27 November 8 BC (~38)

O ye tender babes
Available versions

O ye tender babes

by Thomas Tallis · English

Thomas Tallis portrait

c. 1505 - 23 November 1585 (~80)

When shall my sorrowful sighing slake
Available versions

When shall my sorrowful sighing slake

by Thomas Tallis · English

Thomas Tallis portrait

c. 1505 - 23 November 1585 (~80)

If music be the food of love
Available versions

If music be the food of love

by William Shakespeare · English

William Shakespeare portrait

c. 23 April 1564 - 23 April 1616 (~52)

Short is my rest
Available versions

Short is my rest

by William Barley · English

William Barley portrait

c. 1565 - 1614 (~49)

Every bush new springing
Available versions

Every bush new springing

by Michaell Cavendish · English

Michaell Cavendish portrait

c. 1565 - c. 5 July 1628 (~63)

Come woeful Orpheus
Available versions

Come woeful Orpheus

by William Byrd · English

William Byrd portrait

c. 1540 - 4 July 1623 (~83)

Will you buy a fine dog?
Available versions

Will you buy a fine dog?

by Thomas Morley · English

Thomas Morley portrait

c. 1557 - October 1602 (~45)

Pearce did dance with Petronella
Available versions

Pearce did dance with Petronella

by Giles Farnaby · English

Giles Farnaby portrait

c. 1563 - November 1640 (~77)

To Music, to Becalm His Fever
Available versions

To Music, to Becalm His Fever

by Robert Herrick · English

Robert Herrick portrait

24 August 1591 - 15 October 1674 (~83)

Oft thou hast with greedy ear
Available versions

Oft thou hast with greedy ear

by John Cooper · English

John Cooper portrait

c. 1570 - c. 1626 (~56)

Shall a frown
Available versions

Shall a frown

by William Corkine · English

William Corkine portrait

c. 1580 - c. 1620 (~40)

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