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 C

chain

Archaic Terms
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 unit of length equal to 66 feet or 22 yards, used primarily in surveying; consists of 100 links.

Detailed Definition
The surveyor's chain, invented by mathematician Edmund Gunter in 1620, standardized at 66 feet and revolutionized land measurement. Divided into 100 links, it allowed easy calculation since ten chains equal one furlong and eighty chains equal one mile. This practical tool appears in poetry concerning land ownership, boundaries, and agricultural life, particularly in works addressing enclosure, property disputes, or the surveyor's craft. Poets employed "chain" both literally—to indicate measured distance—and metaphorically, exploiting its associations with bondage, connection, and sequential linkage. The chain's systematic precision contrasts with organic landscape, making it potent when poets explore tensions between human order and natural freedom, or between measured possession and unmeasured experience.
Example
Example in poetry:
Surveyor poetry and verse about land measurement often references "sixty-six feet make one chain, the surveyor's standard"; In poetry about property boundaries, "they marked the line with chain and compass, thirty chains due north"; Historical verse about westward expansion might describe "townships measured in chains and sections, geometry imposed on wilderness"; Poetry exploring precision and order could reference "Gunter's chain, one hundred links, perfect division of imperfect earth"; In verse about disputed boundaries, "lawyers argued chains and rods while neighbors feuded over three-foot strips"; Modern poets addressing development might write "the old chain measurements still govern—our lots subdivide along surveyors' marks from 1847."
Additional Notes
Gunter's chain (invented 1620) revolutionized surveying by enabling easy calculation: 10 chains = 1 furlong, 80 chains = 1 mile, 10 square chains = 1 acre. Students should understand the chain's systematic elegance—its 66-foot length and 100-link subdivision made field calculations straightforward without complex arithmetic. The chain appears extensively in American westward expansion, where townships were surveyed in chains and sections. Understanding chains and links helps students interpret legal property descriptions in historical documents and poetry. In poetry about land measurement, boundaries, and possession, chains represent both precision and the imposition of geometric order on natural landscape. The chain's physical reality (literal linked metal chain stretched across terrain) makes it more tangible than abstract feet or meters. Related terms include link (1/100 chain), rod/perch/pole (1/4 chain), and furlong (10 chains). Students writing about surveying, property boundaries, or westward expansion will find chain measurement essential for period authenticity. The term also enables metaphorical use: chains of measurement versus chains of bondage, geometric chains dividing land.
Other Meanings of “chain”
Also Known As
Catena fetter
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