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 D

Dismay

Psychology
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 sudden loss of courage, confidence, or hope, often accompanied by alarm and disappointment; in poetry, it conveys the shock of unexpected news or the deflation of optimistic expectation.

Detailed Definition
Dismay captures the shock of shattered expectations. In poetry, it appears through abrupt tonal shifts, exclamations, and images of falling or darkness. Poets use dismay to mark turning points—bad news, betrayal, or natural disaster—where the speaker's world tilts. It generates immediate emotional impact, inviting readers to share the vertigo of unforeseen loss or disillusionment.
Example
Example in poetry:
Dismay in Anne Killigrew's "The Discontent" describes "Mountains with-stand them of Dismay"; Emily Reid's "Deep, Dark, Dismay" links dismay to regret and depression; In "A secretive King's Dismay," the king's own actions cause his downfall; The poem "Strange Dismay" speaks of a soul lost to pain; "Bay of Dismay" portrays hands faltering over a grief-filled heart; The speaker in one poem imagines the dismay of a poet devouring supper.
Additional Notes
Dismay captures the shock of shattered expectations, appearing through abrupt tonal shifts, exclamations, and images of falling or darkness. Poets use dismay to mark turning points—bad news, betrayal, or natural disaster—where the speaker's world tilts. In teaching, distinguish dismay from despair: dismay is a sudden alarm, while despair is a prolonged loss of hope. Dismay generates immediate emotional impact, inviting readers to share the vertigo of unforeseen loss or disillusionment. Students should analyze how a poem's rhythm or syntax changes at moments of dismay, often becoming fragmented or breathless.
Also Known As
Alarm consternation disappointment distress disillusionment
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