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

blackcock

Birds
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

A blackcock is a male black grouse, a large game bird whose dark, glossy feathers have traditionally been used to decorate Scottish Highland bonnets.

Detailed Definition
The blackcock is the male of the black grouse, a bird native to moorland and heath in parts of northern Europe and Britain. In poetry, “blackcock feather” often refers not simply to the bird but to the dark plume worn in Highland dress, especially on a tartan bonnet. The image can suggest Scottish identity, ceremony, military-style pageantry, or the rugged landscape of heather and hills.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Robert Williams Buchanan’s “The Wedding of Shon MacLean,” the pipers are described as: “Each clad in tartan new, Bonnet and blackcock feather;” Here, “blackcock feather” is a decorative feather worn in each piper’s bonnet. Along with “tartan,” “heather,” and bagpipes, it helps create a vivid, deliberately Highland Scottish scene. The formal-looking bonnets contrast comically with the pipers’ drunken fate later in the poem.
Additional Notes
“Blackcock” is a compound noun: “black” + “cock,” with “cock” meaning a male bird. The female black grouse is called a greyhen. The black grouse is known for the male’s dark plumage, distinctive lyre-shaped tail, and dramatic spring courtship displays, often called lekking. In Scottish dress, a blackcock feather may be associated with a bonnet or cap; in this context, it is an item of costume rather than a live bird. Do not confuse blackcock with a generic black bird. It names a particular species, the male black grouse. Related terms include black grouse, grouse, greyhen, tartan, bonnet, and Highland dress.
Also Known As
Black Grouse Heathcock Blackgame Lyre Bird
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