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

chaplain

Historical Office
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 clergyman attached to a noble household, military unit, or institution to provide spiritual services

Detailed Definition
The chaplain appears in poetry as a moral guide, confessor, or symbol of faith within secular spaces. Historically serving in castles, armies, or colleges, chaplains bridged religious and worldly spheres. In verse, they often represent conscience, solace, or the tension between spiritual duty and temporal loyalty. From medieval romances to war poetry, the chaplain underscores the human need for meaning amid violence, power, or uncertainty.
Example
Example in poetry:
In John Donne’s holy sonnets, the chaplain mediates between soldier and salvation; In Tennyson’s "Maud," the chaplain offers hollow comfort amid emotional crisis; Victorian war poetry portrays chaplains blessing the dying on battlefields; The chaplain in Robert Browning’s "Childe Roland" symbolizes failed spiritual guidance; Medieval crusade verse depicts chaplains carrying relics into battle; Chaplains appear in college poems as moral tutors to young scholars.
Additional Notes
Chaplains served spiritual needs in non-parochial settings—noble houses, armies, hospitals, or ships—offering prayers, sacraments, and moral counsel; their presence humanized institutions of power or violence—poetic depictions range from pious comforters (in devotional verse) to compromised figures (in satires of court life), reflecting tensions between faith and function.
Also Known As
vicar curate
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