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 D

de rerum natura

Latin Phrases
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

On the nature of things; title of Lucretius's epic poem explaining Epicurean physics and philosophy.

Detailed Definition
De rerum natura, Lucretius's "On the Nature of Things," designates didactic poetry explaining natural phenomena, philosophical systems, or cosmic principles. In poetry, this phrase signals ambition to comprehend and articulate fundamental reality, to teach truth about existence. Poets invoke it when attempting comprehensive accounts of nature, being, or physical law through verse. The phrase suggests poetry can serve philosophical or scientific ends, that verse is appropriate medium for conveying systematic knowledge. It appears in titles and references to didactic poetry, where speakers position themselves as teachers explaining the world's workings, claiming poetry's capacity for truth-telling and instruction, asserting that aesthetics and epistemology can be allied rather than opposed pursuits.
Example
Example in poetry:
Didactic poetry in Lucretius's tradition takes "de rerum natura" as subject—explaining natural phenomena; A contemporary poet writing about physics might invoke "de rerum natura, my attempt to explain the world"; Philosophical verse uses the phrase when teaching cosmology; A metapoetic reflection might note "De rerum natura: can poetry still explain reality?"; Poets attempting comprehensive accounts invoke the phrase; Verse about scientific truth uses "de rerum natura" to name poetry's explanatory ambition
Additional Notes
Lucretius's De Rerum Natura is foundational didactic epic, explaining Epicurean atomic theory and arguing against religious superstition. The phrase designates ambitious poetry that attempts comprehensive explanation of natural phenomena, that treats verse as appropriate medium for philosophical or scientific truth. Poets invoke de rerum natura when attempting similar projects—explaining cosmology, physics, or metaphysics through poetry. Related to questions about whether poetry can convey knowledge, whether aesthetic and epistemic aims can be allied. Useful for understanding didactic poetry from Lucretius through Erasmus Darwin to contemporary science poetry. The phrase also raises questions about disciplinary boundaries: can poetry still perform the encyclopedic function it once did, or has science monopolized explanation? Contemporary poets sometimes invoke de rerum natura to reclaim poetry's right to address nature, reality, fundamental questions about existence, refusing to cede these topics entirely to prose.
Also Known As
on the nature of things
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