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

Distemper

Medical 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 archaic term for disease or bodily disorder. In poetry it often represents both physical illness and moral or emotional imbalance.

Detailed Definition
Distemper historically meant a general disorder of the body or mind and was widely used before modern diagnostic terms developed. Rooted in humoral medicine, it implied that illness arose from imbalance among bodily fluids. Poets employed distemper not only to describe sickness but also to suggest a disturbed state of character or society. The word’s broad meaning allows it to signify corruption, unrest, or emotional turmoil, making it a flexible metaphor for conditions in which harmony has been lost.
Example
Example in poetry:
The dog suffered from a violent case of distemper; Poets use distemper to describe political unrest; The humors of the body were out of balance with distemper; A distemper of the mind led to his erratic behavior; The kingdom fell into distemper after the king died; Old medical texts link distemper to bad air and mood.
Additional Notes
Distemper historically meant disease or disorder in the body but also came to describe emotional imbalance. In poetry it often symbolises both physical sickness and moral disturbance. Writers may refer to social distempers such as corruption, injustice, or unrest. The word reflects older medical ideas linking bodily health with emotional temperament. Its broad meaning allows poets to connect individual suffering with wider disorder in society or nature.
Also Known As
Disease Illness Disorder Ailment Tempera
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