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

clove

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

An English unit of weight equal to seven or eight pounds, varying by commodity; used primarily for cheese and wool.

Detailed Definition
The clove, measuring seven or eight pounds depending on commodity and region, was used for cheese, wool, and some other goods. Half a stone in many contexts, the clove represented manageable commercial quantities. In poetry concerning markets, trade, or rural commerce, clove provides authentic small-scale commercial measurement. The term evokes market transactions, rural economy, and the gradations of commercial weight. Poets employed cloves when treating market scenes or rural commercial life, adding specific measurement detail that grounds descriptions in authentic trading practices and connects readers to the material culture of traditional commerce.
Example
Example in poetry:
In poetry about English markets, "two cloves of cheese for the fair, carefully wrapped in muslin"; Agricultural verse might reference "the dairy maid counted her production in cloves, keeping careful tally"; In historical poetry about rural trade, "he offered three cloves of wool, she wanted four—they settled at three and a half"; Poetry exploring measurement's human scale uses "clove—small enough to carry, large enough to trade"; In verse about traditional commerce, "before supermarkets measured in kilograms, the greengrocer weighed in cloves"; Modern poets writing about lost practices might describe "grandmother bought cheese by the clove, butter by the pound, everything measured to the ounce."
Additional Notes
The clove's variation by commodity (7-8 pounds) and its relationship to stone (clove = half stone in many contexts) helps students understand nested weight systems. The term appears primarily in contexts of cheese and wool trade, two commodities central to English medieval and early modern economy. Students should recognize that clove represents manageable commercial quantities—larger than household purchases but smaller than wholesale lots. In market poetry and rural commerce contexts, cloves provide specific measurement for actual trading practices. The term grounds descriptions in authentic commercial vocabulary rather than generic "pounds." Understanding English weight hierarchy (grain < scruple < drachm < ounce < pound < stone < clove < tod < wey < sack) helps students grasp systematic measurement thinking. In poetry about markets, rural economy, and traditional commerce, cloves represent the middle scale of trade. Related terms include stone (14 pounds), tod (28 pounds of wool), and wey (182 pounds), all commercial weight units. Students writing about English markets or wool trade will find clove useful for period-appropriate commercial detail.
Other Meanings of “clove”
Also Known As
clove weight nail (in some contexts)
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