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

churl

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 rude, surly, or ill-bred person; originally referred to a peasant or low-ranking freeman in medieval society.

Detailed Definition
In Old and Middle English, “churl” denoted a free peasant or common laborer, distinct from nobility or serfs, but by the late Middle Ages it acquired pejorative connotations of boorishness and lack of refinement. Poets used “churl” to contrast base behavior with courtly virtue, especially in allegorical or moralizing verse. Its presence in poetry often underscores themes of social hierarchy, moral failing, or the corruption of natural nobility. The term appears in works like Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” and Shakespearean drama to evoke rustic crudeness or ethical deficiency, serving both character critique and social commentary within elevated poetic diction.
Example
Example in poetry:
The churl spoke rudely to the noble lady at the castle gate; A churl with roughened hands and manners coarse tilled the barren field; No churl could understand the refined sentiments of courtly love; The knight despised the churl who knew not honor nor courtesy; Among the churls and peasants rose one man of gentle spirit; That churl lacks all grace and breeding fit for polite society
Additional Notes
The term "churl" has undergone significant semantic shift from its Old English origins. In Anglo-Saxon England, a "ceorl" was simply a free peasant, the lowest rank of freeman, positioned between slaves and nobles in the social hierarchy. By the medieval period, the term had acquired negative connotations of rudeness and lack of refinement, contrasting with courtly behavior. In poetry, "churl" often serves as a foil to noble or gentle characters, emphasizing class distinctions and moral qualities associated with breeding. The related adjective "churlish" means rude or difficult to work with. Spenser and other Renaissance poets used this term to distinguish between characters of noble spirit versus base nature. Modern readers should understand that calling someone a churl implies not just poverty but a fundamental lack of courtesy, generosity, and refined manners that were idealized in medieval and Renaissance literature.
Also Known As
churle carle boor carl
Skip to main content