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 B

barley break

Games
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

Barley break is an old English country game involving couples running and catching across a field divided into sections.

Detailed Definition
Barley break enters poetry as a pastoral emblem of courtship and the playful pursuit among pairs. In Renaissance verse it symbolizes the rural dance of love and capture. Poets use its breaks and runs to explore themes of temporary separation, the rejoining of partners, and the agricultural setting that frames the human game of affection.
Example
Example in poetry:
Barley break’s running couples appear in pastoral and courtship poetry of the countryside; Renaissance verse uses the game for the playful chase and capture among pairs; “They ran the barley break until the moon rose” illustrates seasonal and amorous play; Educational examples present the divided field as a map of temporary separation and reunion; Poets keep the term when rural love needs a traditional outdoor frame.
Additional Notes
Barley break’s running couples and divided field made it a favorite pastoral emblem of courtship and seasonal play. Renaissance poets frequently place the game among the sports of the green when they wish to stage light-hearted yet patterned pursuit. Classroom discussion can explore how the game’s structure of catch-and-release maps onto erotic or social negotiation. Related country games include stool-ball and the various forms of football. The term rewards attention to the agricultural calendar that frames the play.
Also Known As
barleybrake barley-break
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