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

“silence” across the centuries

Related terms Include related catalogue terms in the chart (each poem counted once per era, even if it has several tags).
silences 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 1 / 183 1650s 2 / 60 1700s 0 / 36 1750s 1 / 165 1800s 13 / 699 1850s 20 / 966 1900s 36 / 1143 1950s 0 / 15

Sample poems · click an era above to focus

Seal up her Eyes, O sleep
Available versions

Seal up her Eyes, O sleep

by William Cartwright · English

William Cartwright portrait

1 September 1611 - 29 November 1643 (~32)

The Voice of Cicadas
Available versions

The Voice of Cicadas

by Matsuo Bashō · Japanese

Matsuo Bashō portrait

1644 - 28 November 1694 (~50)

Hidden Flame
Available versions

Hidden Flame

by John Dryden · English

John Dryden portrait

9 August 1631 - 12 May 1700 (~69)

Speak of the North! A lonely moor
Available versions

Speak of the North! A lonely moor

by Charlotte Brontë · English

Charlotte Brontë portrait

21 April 1816 - 31 March 1855 (~39)

When We Two Parted
Available versions

When We Two Parted

by Lord Byron · English

Lord Byron portrait

22 January 1788 - 19 April 1824 (~36)

Oh! breathe not his name
Available versions

Oh! breathe not his name

by Thomas Moore · English

Thomas Moore portrait

28 May 1779 - 25 February 1852 (~73)

Silence
Available versions

Silence

by Thomas Hood · English

Thomas Hood portrait

23 May 1799 - 3 May 1845 (~46)

Merops
Available versions

Merops

by Ralph Waldo Emerson · English

Ralph Waldo Emerson portrait

25 May 1803 - 27 April 1882 (~79)

To the River Charles
Available versions

To the River Charles

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · English

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow portrait

27 February 1807 - 24 March 1882 (~75)

The Valley of Silence
Available versions

The Valley of Silence

by Fiona Macleod · English

Fiona Macleod portrait

12 September 1855 - 12 December 1905 (~50)

The Princess
Available versions

The Princess

by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson · Norwegian

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson portrait

8 December 1832 - 26 April 1910 (~78)

Now playing
-
-
0:00
0:00
Track 1

Poem Actions

Choose an action for this poem

Skip to main content