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

bean sídhe

Dialect
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

The Irish supernatural woman of the fairy mounds whose wailing cry presages death, known in English as the banshee, a figure of haunting poetic power in Irish and Anglo-Irish verse.

Detailed Definition
The bean sídhe (woman of the sídhe) belongs to the world of Irish supernatural belief, appearing as a beautiful or terrifying woman whose keening foretells the death of a member of certain families. She links the world of the fairy mounds — the sídhe — to the human world through the medium of lamentation, making her simultaneously a mourner and a death omen. In poetry she merges with the caoineadh tradition, since her voice is itself a keen. Nora Hopper Chesson and other Revival poets found in the bean sídhe an image of overwhelming feminine grief and supernatural beauty perfectly suited to their aesthetic programme.
Example
Example in poetry:
The bean sídhe appears as a radiant woman connected to specific fairy mounds; Poets distinguish the bean sídhe from the bansídhe by her role as guardian rather than mourner; The bean sídhe may offer gifts or curses depending on human behavior; In this tale, the bean sídhe tests the hero's worthiness through riddles; The bean sídhe embodies the beauty and danger of the supernatural feminine; Encounters with the bean sídhe often result in transformative experiences for mortals.
Additional Notes
The bean sídhe is the specific female spirit of the fairy mound, often conflated with the banshee but originally distinct as a guardian or inhabitant of the otherworld. In early poetry, she might appear as a lover or guide, while in later folklore, her role narrows to the death-messenger. Poets use her to explore the allure and danger of the supernatural feminine, often depicting her as beautiful yet terrifying. Her presence signals a breach in the ordinary world, inviting characters into adventures that challenge their humanity.
Also Known As
banshee bean sí fairy woman death messenger
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