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

Home › Glossary › Letter A

aforetime

Archaic Terms
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Aforetime means in former times or previously, referring to events in the past.

Detailed Definition
Aforetime is an archaic adverb meaning "formerly" or "in times past." It enriches poetry by evoking nostalgia, historical continuity, or contrast between eras. Common in ballads and epic verse, it lends an old-world charm that supports themes of memory, tradition, and the passage of time. Poets choose it to create distance from modernity, heightening emotional resonance in reflective or lamenting works while maintaining metrical harmony.
Example
Example in poetry:
In days aforetime, knights rode boldly into battle; The lovers met aforetime beneath the ancient oak.; Poets of aforetime sang of heroic deeds and fallen kings.; Aforetime the meadows bloomed with flowers untrodden by man.; In the legends aforetime, magic flowed freely through the land.; Aforetime we wandered freely without care for tomorrow.
Additional Notes
Notes on aforetime: This adverb evokes a sense of historical distance and nostalgia, making it ideal for poetry that contrasts past and present or explores memory and tradition. Students should note its similarity to "formerly" but with a more formal, literary flavor suited to ballads and reflective verse. Usage tip: pair it with words like "once" or "in days of yore" to build layers of temporal depth. In university studies, compare its use in Romantic poets who romanticized the past with medieval sources where it appears more straightforwardly. It helps create rhythmic flow in lines requiring an unstressed syllable and adds archaic authenticity without overcomplicating syntax, encouraging students to experiment with temporal shifts in their own creative writing.
Also Known As
whilom
Skip to main content