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

Alastor

Mythology
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

An avenging spirit or daimon of retribution sent to punish familial crimes; in literature, Alastor symbolises haunting guilt and relentless moral justice.

Detailed Definition
Alastor represents a spirit of retribution, often sent to punish crimes within a family line. In literature, the name evokes inescapable guilt, hereditary curse, and moral reckoning. Poets use Alastor as a symbol of haunting conscience or divine justice that pursues wrongdoers across generations, embodying the darker forces of fate and retribution.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Romantic poetry, “Alastor” can personify an avenging spirit, as in a wanderer pursued by his own guilt; A poet might write, “An Alastor dogs my steps,” to suggest inherited curse; In elegy, Alastor can symbolise the haunting memory of a wronged ancestor; In dramatic monologue, invoking Alastor heightens the sense of psychological retribution.
Additional Notes
Alastor represents the ancient Greek concept of inherited guilt and divine retribution that haunts families across generations. Often invoked in tragedy, particularly in the House of Atreus cycle, this daemon embodies the relentless pursuit of vengeance that cannot be escaped. The term itself means "avenger" or "he who does not forget," reflecting the inexorable nature of blood guilt in Greek thought. In poetry, Alastor serves as a powerful symbol of curse and nemesis, frequently appearing in works dealing with familial violence and transgenerational trauma. Shelley famously used this name for his poem exploring isolation and the quest for ideal beauty. For students analyzing Greek tragedy, understanding Alastor helps illuminate the theological and moral framework underlying works like the Oresteia, where cycles of vengeance must ultimately be broken through divine intervention and the establishment of human justice systems.
Also Known As
avenger spirit relentless pursuer demonic force
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