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

“poor” across the centuries

Related terms Include related catalogue terms in the chart (each poem counted once per era, even if it has several tags).
poorhouse 1 poem poore 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 0 / 60 1700s 0 / 36 1750s 3 / 165 1800s 4 / 699 1850s 4 / 966 1900s 6 / 1143 1950s 0 / 15

Sample poems · click an era above to focus

To the Poor
Available versions

To the Poor

by Anna Lætitia Barbauld · English

Anna Lætitia Barbauld portrait

20 June 1743 - 9 March 1825 (~82)

Holy Thursday
Available versions

Holy Thursday

by William Blake · English

William Blake portrait

28 November 1757 - 12 August 1827 (~70)

Is there, for honest poverty
Available versions

Is there, for honest poverty

by Robert Burns · English

Robert Burns portrait

25 January 1759 - 21 July 1796 (~37)

The Complaints of the Poor
Available versions

The Complaints of the Poor

by Robert Southey · English

Robert Southey portrait

12 August 1774 - 21 March 1843 (~69)

Poverty
Available versions

Poverty

by Henry David Thoreau · English

Henry David Thoreau portrait

12 July 1817 - 6 May 1862 (~45)

Not Poor
Available versions

Not Poor

by Elizabeth Prentiss · English

Elizabeth Prentiss portrait

26 October 1818 - 13 August 1878 (~60)

The Hymn of the Wiltshire Laborers
Available versions

The Hymn of the Wiltshire Laborers

by Charles Dickens · English

Charles Dickens portrait

7 February 1812 - 9 June 1870 (~58)

The Poor Ghost
Available versions

The Poor Ghost

by Christina Rossetti · English

Christina Rossetti portrait

5 December 1830 - 29 December 1894 (~64)

The Widow at Windsor
Available versions

The Widow at Windsor

by Rudyard Kipling · English

Rudyard Kipling portrait

30 December 1865 - 18 January 1936 (~71)

The Voice of the Poor
Available versions

The Voice of the Poor

by Lady Jane Wilde · English

Lady Jane Wilde portrait

27 December 1821 - 3 February 1896 (~75)

Rich, Though Poor
Available versions

Rich, Though Poor

by Alice Cary · English

Alice Cary portrait

26 April 1820 - 12 February 1871 (~51)

Common Things
Available versions

Common Things

by Paul Laurence Dunbar · English

Paul Laurence Dunbar portrait

27 June 1872 - 9 February 1906 (~34)

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