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.

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 C

Caroline Divines Period

Historical And Literary Periods
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 early 17th-century religious and literary period associated with English Caroline court poets who were also Anglican clergy. Figures included Robert Herrick and Henry Vaughan who combined courtly sophistication with spiritual devotion.

Detailed Definition
The Caroline Divines Period produced poetry merging courtly refinement with spiritual intensity and theological sophistication. Poets developed intricate metaphysical arguments about grace, love, and salvation. This period appears in poetry through religious paradox, elaborate conceits applying earthly love to divine love, sophisticated wordplay, exploration of doubt and faith, and the influence of Herbert and Donne, establishing the metaphysical tradition's enduring power to negotiate between intellectual rigor and spiritual longing.
Example
Example in poetry:
A devotional poem characterized by profound personal piety, sophisticated theological arguments, and rich, ceremonial language, typical of the Caroline Divines Period; A work advocating for the High Church Anglican traditions and the 'beauty of holiness'; A poem using elaborate metaphors and typological references to the Bible and early Church Fathers; A meditative poem structured around the order of Anglican liturgy or the Church calendar.
Additional Notes
The Caroline Divines Period (17th century) featured Anglican poets-theologians like George Herbert and Henry Vaughan who expressed spiritual devotion through metaphysical conceits. Their verse balanced intellectual precision with mystical reverence, responding to the religious tensions preceding the English Civil War.
Also Known As
Caroline Divine Poets Metaphysical Divines
Skip to main content