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

“past” across the centuries

Related terms Include related catalogue terms in the chart (each poem counted once per era, even if it has several tags).
pastoral 38 poems pasture 1 poem pastel 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 0 / 12 1500s 0 / 12 1550s 0 / 93 1600s 0 / 183 1650s 1 / 60 1700s 0 / 36 1750s 0 / 165 1800s 21 / 699 1850s 23 / 966 1900s 18 / 1143 1950s 0 / 15

Sample poems · click an era above to focus

Love and Life
Available versions

Love and Life

by John Wilmot · English

John Wilmot portrait

1 April 1647 - 26 July 1680 (~33)

Mild the mist upon the hill
Available versions

Mild the mist upon the hill

by Emily Brontë · English

Emily Brontë portrait

30 July 1818 - 19 December 1848 (~30)

Old Song
Available versions

Old Song

by Edward FitzGerald · English

Edward FitzGerald portrait

31 March 1809 - 14 June 1883 (~74)

The Past
Available versions

The Past

by Ralph Waldo Emerson · English

Ralph Waldo Emerson portrait

25 May 1803 - 27 April 1882 (~79)

My days among the Dead are past
Available versions

My days among the Dead are past

by Robert Southey · English

Robert Southey portrait

12 August 1774 - 21 March 1843 (~69)

Tears, Idle Tears
Available versions

Tears, Idle Tears

by Alfred Lord Tennyson · English

Alfred Lord Tennyson portrait

6 August 1809 - 6 October 1892 (~83)

The Haunted House
Available versions

The Haunted House

by Felicia Dorothea Hemans · English

Felicia Dorothea Hemans portrait

25 September 1793 - 16 May 1835 (~42)

A Spellbound Palace
Available versions

A Spellbound Palace

by Thomas Hardy · English

Thomas Hardy portrait

2 June 1840 - 11 January 1928 (~88)

Wessex Heights
Available versions

Wessex Heights

by Thomas Hardy · English

Thomas Hardy portrait

2 June 1840 - 11 January 1928 (~88)

The Voice
Available versions

The Voice

by Thomas Hardy · English

Thomas Hardy portrait

2 June 1840 - 11 January 1928 (~88)

Drake's Drum
Available versions

Drake's Drum

by Henry Newbolt · English

Henry Newbolt portrait

6 June 1862 - 19 April 1938 (~76)

At Castle Boterel
Available versions

At Castle Boterel

by Thomas Hardy · English

Thomas Hardy portrait

2 June 1840 - 11 January 1928 (~88)

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