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

Alba Longa

Historical Location
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

A legendary city in Latium, said to be founded by Ascanius (son of Aeneas) and the mother city of Rome

Detailed Definition
Alba Longa was the mythical capital of the Latin League and ancestral home of Romulus and Remus. Destroyed by Rome, it represents Rome’s prehistory. In poetry, Alba Longa symbolizes dynastic origin, sacred kingship, and the mythic prelude to empire—often serving as a link between Trojan refugees and Roman destiny, embodying the continuity of heroic lineage.
Example
Example in poetry:
Virgil’s Aeneid positions Alba Longa as the ancestral seat of Rome’s royal line, linking destiny and lineage; Ovid references Alba Longa in Fasti as a sacred site tied to Roman foundation myths; In Renaissance epic poetry, Alba Longa appears as a symbol of proto-Roman virtue and piety; Augustan poets used Alba Longa to underscore the continuity between Trojan heritage and Roman imperial identity; Modern historical verse occasionally evokes Alba Longa to explore themes of origin and erasure.
Additional Notes
Alba Longa occupies a liminal space between myth and proto-history in Roman tradition. As the legendary city founded by Ascanius (Iulus), son of Aeneas, it serves as the ancestral link between Trojan refugees and the eventual founding of Rome by Romulus and Remus. Though archaeologically elusive, Alba Longa is crucial in Roman foundational narratives, especially in Virgil’s Aeneid, where it embodies continuity, lineage, and the sacred destiny of Rome. In poetry, it functions as a symbolic cradle of Roman identity and dynastic legitimacy.
Also Known As
Alba
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