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

Buzzard

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 broad-winged raptor often associated with scavenging and the wild.

Detailed Definition
Though sometimes conflated with vultures, the buzzard in poetry embodies rugged independence, keen perception, and the untamed spirit of the countryside. In British literature especially, it represents the watchful eye of nature or the resilience of native wildlife. Its soaring flight and adaptability make it a symbol of freedom and survival, often contrasted with urban decay or human frailty in pastoral and ecological verse.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Ted Hughes’s “The Buzzard,” the bird circles “like a thought over the moor,” embodying wild observation; British pastoral poets depict the buzzard as a sovereign of upland skies, untouched by human chaos; The buzzard’s cry in rural verse signals the untamed spirit of the countryside; Modern poets contrast the buzzard’s freedom with the confinement of city life; Its broad wingspan becomes a metaphor for expansive, unjudging perspective.
Additional Notes
The buzzard—often confused with vultures in American English but a true raptor in British usage—represents rugged independence, keen observation, and the spirit of the wild countryside. In UK poetry, it’s a symbol of native resilience and aerial sovereignty over moorlands and hills. Unlike the eagle, it’s common yet commanding, offering poets a grounded alternative to imperial bird imagery. Ted Hughes and other nature poets use its circling flight to explore themes of patience, surveillance, and ecological balance. Related terms: “buteo,” “soaring raptor,” “pastoral sentinel.” Note regional differences in terminology when analyzing texts.
Also Known As
Common Buzzard Buteo Rough-legged Buzzard (regional confusion with hawks)
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