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

Bay

Flora
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 aromatic evergreen tree whose leaves symbolize victory, poetry, and honor.

Detailed Definition
Bay leaves crown poets and victors, symbolizing achievement, prophecy, and divine favor in poetry. Sacred to Apollo, the bay tree represents the laureate’s hard-won status and the enduring power of inspired words. Poets invoke it to claim or question their own legacy.
Example
Example in poetry:
Bay leaves crown poets in classical tradition, as in Dryden’s odes: “Wreathe my brow with bay, though time may fade the green”; In Virgil, the bay tree protects from lightning, inspiring metaphors of divine favor; Victorian poets contrast bay’s evergreen with seasonal blooms to symbolize enduring fame; Modern verse uses bay as a kitchen herb to evoke domestic ritual: “Simmer bay with memory and onion”; In Mediterranean poetry, bay signifies victory and prophecy; Its aromatic bitterness flavors poems of truth: “Speak plainly—like bay in broth, sharp but necessary.”
Additional Notes
Bay (Laurus nobilis), source of laurel wreaths, symbolizes victory, poetic achievement, and honor since antiquity; “poet laureate” derives from this tradition; in elegiac poetry, it may suggest enduring fame; distinguish from unrelated “cherry laurel” (toxic); bay’s evergreen nature also implies constancy amid change—ideal for meditative or commemorative verse.
Other Meanings of “Bay”
Also Known As
Bay Laurel Sweet Bay Laurel gulf Compartment
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