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

arval

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

Arval is an archaic Northern English and Scottish dialect term for a funeral feast or wake, traditionally involving bread, ale, and communal mourning rites.

Detailed Definition
In archaic poetry, especially dialect verse, "arval" refers to the post-burial meal shared by mourners, symbolizing community support, inheritance transitions, and the continuation of life amid death. It grounds poems in specific regional customs, evoking sensory details of shared food and drink alongside grief. Its significance lies in highlighting folk traditions that blend sorrow with sustenance, reinforcing social bonds. Nuances include its association with specific foods like arval-bread and rituals such as offering portions to animals or the poor.
Example
Example in poetry:
From F. W. Moorman's "Telling The Bees": "T' mourners are coom, an' t' arval is spread, / Cakes fresh frae t' yoon, an' fine havver-bread." The term depicts the funeral feast following a death, where mourners gather and traditions extend even to the bees.
Additional Notes
Historical context or origin: Derived from Norse/Viking traditions of inheritance feasts (erfiǫl), common in Northern England and Scotland. Related terms or variations: Also called arvel or arvil; associated with "arval-bread" or "funeral ale." Common usage tips or pitfalls to avoid: Use in dialect or historical poems to evoke authenticity; explain for modern readers unfamiliar with regional folklore. Cross-references to similar or contrasting terms: Similar to "wake" or "funeral banquet"; contrasts with solitary mourning by emphasizing communal feasting. Etymology if relevant: From Old Norse erfiǫl, combining arfr (inheritance) and ǫl (ale).
Also Known As
arvel arvill funeral feast wake
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