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

“voice” across the centuries

Related terms Include related catalogue terms in the chart (each poem counted once per era, even if it has several tags).
voices 11 poems voiceless 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 2 / 30 BCE 2 / 12 1500s 0 / 12 1550s 3 / 93 1600s 1 / 183 1650s 2 / 60 1700s 1 / 36 1750s 6 / 165 1800s 19 / 699 1850s 32 / 966 1900s 36 / 1143 1950s 0 / 15

Sample poems · click an era above to focus

Vox ultima Crucis
Available versions

Vox ultima Crucis

by John Lydgate · English

John Lydgate portrait

c. 1370 - c. 1450 (~80)

The Prais of Aige
Available versions

The Prais of Aige

by Robert Henryson · English

Robert Henryson portrait

c. 1425 - c. 1500 (~75)

phainetai moi
Available versions

phainetai moi

by Sappho · Greek

Sappho portrait

c. 610 BC - c. 570 BC (~40)

Olympian 14
Available versions

Olympian 14

by Pindar · Greek

Pindar portrait

c. 518 BC - c. 438 BC (~80)

Short is my rest
Available versions

Short is my rest

by William Barley · English

William Barley portrait

c. 1565 - 1614 (~49)

Come woeful Orpheus
Available versions

Come woeful Orpheus

by William Byrd · English

William Byrd portrait

c. 1540 - 4 July 1623 (~83)

Lullaby
Available versions

Lullaby

by Richard Rowlands · English

Richard Rowlands portrait

c. 1550 - c. 1640 (~90)

Sweet Suffolk owl
Available versions

Sweet Suffolk owl

by Thomas Vautor · English

Thomas Vautor portrait

c. 1592 - 1619 (~27)

The Fair Singer
Available versions

The Fair Singer

by Andrew Marvell · English

Andrew Marvell portrait

31 March 1621 - 16 August 1678 (~57)

The Voice of Cicadas
Available versions

The Voice of Cicadas

by Matsuo Bashō · Japanese

Matsuo Bashō portrait

1644 - 28 November 1694 (~50)

False though She be
Available versions

False though She be

by William Congreve · English

William Congreve portrait

24 January 1670 - 19 January 1729 (~59)

A Riddle
Available versions

A Riddle

by Anna Lætitia Barbauld · English

Anna Lætitia Barbauld portrait

20 June 1743 - 9 March 1825 (~82)

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