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

Agni

World Religion
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

The Hindu god of fire, messenger between humans and gods, central to Vedic rituals and sacrificial offerings.

Detailed Definition
Agni is one of the most frequently invoked deities in the Rigveda, serving as the divine priest who carries oblations to the gods. As both physical fire and inner spiritual heat (tapas), he symbolizes transformation, purification, and divine witness. In poetry, Agni appears as a mediator, a devourer, and a life-giver—essential to yajnas (sacrifices) and rites of passage like marriage and cremation. Poets use his imagery to explore themes of consumption and renewal, the duality of destruction and creation, and the sacredness of ritual. His presence underscores the Vedic worldview where cosmic order (rita) is maintained through disciplined offering and divine reciprocity.
Example
Example in poetry:
The Rigveda’s Hymn to Agni (1.1) opens: “I glorify Agni, the priest of the sacrifice, the divine minister…”—a line echoed in modern eco-poetry as “Agni, ancient recycler, turning death to dawn”; In a post-colonial poem, Agni symbolizes resistance: “They burned our books, but forgot Agni carries truth in his embers”; A contemporary verse uses Agni as inner fire: “My Agni is not in the hearth, but in the spine—burning away fear”; A minimalist haiku reads: “Red-tongued guest arrives—/ Agni eats the offering, / returns it as light.”
Additional Notes
Agni, as both deity and element, serves as the sacred intermediary in Vedic yajnas (fire sacrifices), carrying offerings to the gods through smoke and flame. He is uniquely present in three forms: fire on earth, lightning in the atmosphere, and the sun in heaven. In the Rigveda, Agni is second only to Indra in number of hymns dedicated to him. Poetically, Agni symbolizes transformation, witness, and divine speech—concepts poets from Kalidasa to modern Indian English writers invoke when exploring themes of purification, truth, or cosmic order. His role underscores the Vedic worldview where ritual action maintains rta (cosmic harmony).
Also Known As
Fire God
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