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

Bite off more than you can chew

Idiomatic Phrase
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

To take on a task too large or difficult to handle successfully.

Detailed Definition
This digestive metaphor warns against overambition. In poetry, it often depicts hubris, youthful error, or creative overreach—such as poets attempting epic forms beyond their skill. It appears in cautionary tales, satires, or reflective lyrics where characters learn humility through failure. Its bodily logic (chewing as processing) ties effort to capacity, making it a grounded metaphor for limits of talent, time, or emotional resilience in the face of overwhelming demand.
Example
Example in poetry:
Overambitious poet: “I tried to write an epic in a week—bit off more than I could chew”; Parenting verse: “Three kids, night shift, college—she bit off more than she could chew, yet chews on”; Startup failure: “Launched five apps at once—bit off more than he could chew, now bankrupt and wiser”; Artistic warning: “Don’t bite off more than you can chew; even Homer sang one tale at a time.”
Additional Notes
This digestive metaphor warns against overambition. In poetry, it depicts hubris, youthful error, or creative overreach—e.g., poets attempting epic forms beyond their skill. It appears in cautionary tales where characters learn humility through failure. Its bodily logic (chewing as processing) ties effort to capacity, making it grounded. Students should distinguish it from “reach for the stars” (positive ambition); this phrase implies mismatched scale. Related idioms include “in over your head” and “spread too thin.” In academic poetry, it critiques publish-or-perish culture; in love poems, it warns against rushing intimacy.
Also Known As
Bite off more than one can chew Take on too much
Skip to main content