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

“social” across the centuries

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

pre-1500 1 / 30 BCE 1 / 12 1500s 0 / 12 1550s 13 / 93 1600s 16 / 183 1650s 6 / 60 1700s 10 / 36 1750s 39 / 165 1800s 74 / 699 1850s 80 / 966 1900s 80 / 1143 1950s 4 / 15

Sample poems · click an era above to focus

The Wife's Lament
Available versions

The Wife's Lament

by Ealhswith of Mercia · Old English

Ealhswith of Mercia portrait

c. 920 - c. 970 (~50)

The Character of a Happy Life
Available versions

The Character of a Happy Life

by Sir Henry Wotton · English

Sir Henry Wotton portrait

30 March 1568 - December 1639 (~71)

If you prick us, do we not bleed?
Available versions

If you prick us, do we not bleed?

by William Shakespeare · English

William Shakespeare portrait

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

O Romeo, Romeo!
Available versions

O Romeo, Romeo!

by William Shakespeare · English

William Shakespeare portrait

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

All the world’s a stage
Available versions

All the world’s a stage

by William Shakespeare · English

William Shakespeare portrait

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

The Wind and the Rain
Available versions

The Wind and the Rain

by William Shakespeare · English

William Shakespeare portrait

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

To Thine Own Self Be True
Available versions

To Thine Own Self Be True

by William Shakespeare · English

William Shakespeare portrait

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

To the Virgins, to make much of Time
Available versions

To the Virgins, to make much of Time

by Robert Herrick · English

Robert Herrick portrait

24 August 1591 - 15 October 1674 (~83)

Go, Lovely Rose
Available versions

Go, Lovely Rose

by Edmund Waller · English

Edmund Waller portrait

3 March 1606 - 21 October 1687 (~81)

The Flea
Available versions

The Flea

by John Donne · English

John Donne portrait

1572 - 31 March 1631 (~59)

The Canonization
Available versions

The Canonization

by John Donne · English

John Donne portrait

1572 - 31 March 1631 (~59)

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