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.

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.

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

Blind leading the blind

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

Blind leading the blind: a situation where an ignorant guide leads those equally uninformed; rooted in the Gospels (Matthew 15:14), it carries ironic and cautionary force in moral poetry.

Detailed Definition
Blind leading the blind, an idiomatic phrase with biblical echoes from Matthew 15:14, critiques misguided leadership, collective ignorance, and the dangers of unqualified guidance, making it a staple in satirical, wisdom-oriented, or philosophical poetry that exposes folly in authority figures, institutional failures, and human susceptibility to delusion. Poets deploy it to underscore themes of moral confusion, false prophets, societal misdirection, and the need for genuine insight, often contrasting superficial direction with true enlightenment, thereby fostering reader reflection on accountability, humility in knowledge, and the consequences of unexamined paths in both humorous critiques and somber meditations on governance, community, and personal discernment.
Example
Example in poetry:
A satirical poem might show the blind leading the blind through fog and false promises; In a spiritual poem, the phrase can warn against ignorance guiding ignorance; The phrase suits political verse about leaders who know no more than their followers; A comic poet could use it for hopeless travellers arguing over a map.
Additional Notes
This biblical-sounding phrase describes misguided leadership by those equally ignorant. It is useful in poems about politics, war, education, religion, bureaucracy, or social collapse. The image has strong moral and visual force: a group moves forward without sight or wisdom. Poets can use it satirically, tragically, or compassionately, especially when ignorance is shared rather than confined to one foolish leader.
Also Known As
The blind leading the blind
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