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

Agonalia

Historical Festival
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

Roman festival held multiple times a year to honor Janus and other deities, involving sacrifices and public prayers

Detailed Definition
The Agonalia was an ancient Roman observance held on specific dates (January 9, March 17, May 21, and December 11) primarily dedicated to Janus, though other gods like Vediovis and Salus were also honored. Rituals included the sacrifice of a ram and public supplications for civic well-being. Though obscure in detail, its name may derive from "agon," suggesting contest or assembly. In poetry, the Agonalia appears as a marker of Roman piety and cyclical time, often invoked to underscore themes of beginnings, thresholds, and divine favor in both classical and neoclassical verse.
Example
Example in poetry:
Ovid’s “Fasti” describes the Agonalia as a festival honoring Janus with sacrificial offerings at dawn; Poets evoke Agonalia to explore thresholds—between old and new, war and peace; In neoclassical verse, Agonalia symbolizes the necessity of ritual before decisive action; Contemporary poets reference Agonalia’s obscure origins to meditate on forgotten civic rites; Agonalia appears in pastoral poetry as a quiet, rustic observance before spring campaigns; Poets use Agonalia’s association with Janus to reflect on duality and transitions in human experience.
Additional Notes
Agonalia was a Roman festival held multiple times a year (January 9, March 17, May 21, and December 11) dedicated to Janus or other deities, featuring sacrifices and public prayers; though its origins are obscure, its name may derive from "agon" (contest) or "agna" (lamb), and it reflects early Roman religiosity; poets might invoke Agonalia to evoke archaic piety, civic ritual, or the cyclical rhythm of the Roman calendar.
Also Known As
Agonium
Skip to main content