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

drabble

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 verb meaning to make wet and dirty, especially by dragging through mud or water; to draggle or bemire something.

Detailed Definition
"Drabble" combines associations with "drab" (wet, muddy) and "draggle," meaning to make wet and dirty by dragging through mud or water. The term appears in descriptions of weather-beaten travel, muddy conditions, or the degradation of fine things exposed to rough elements. Poets used it when describing how garments became soiled, how travelers suffered weather's effects, or how nobility was reduced to squalor. The word's specificity—not just wet or dirty but both, typically from dragging—gave it precision for particular types of degradation. Its slightly humorous sound could suit comic descriptions of mishap or discomfort. The term reflected practical concerns in pre-modern life where travel, weather, and lack of paved roads meant constant exposure to mud and its social implications for appearance and respectability.
Example
Example in poetry:
The hem of her gown drabbles in the muddy street; "Drabbled skirts" shows the effects of poor weather; Rain-soaked travelers drabble through the mire; To drabble one's finery was embarrassing to nobility; The pageant's glory drabbled in unexpected storms; Servants drabble their clothes doing menial work
Additional Notes
Drabble appears primarily in rural and realistic descriptions, particularly in texts emphasizing the physical hardships of travel or labor. The term's specificity (wet and muddy, especially from dragging) makes it valuable for precise imagery. Related to "draggle," "bedraggle," and "bemire" with similar meanings. Etymology possibly from Low German "drabbeln." Essential for analyzing passages depicting physical degradation, the relationship between humans and muddy nature, or the material realities of pre-modern travel. The term appears in realistic or satirical contexts rather than idealized pastoral. Useful for discussing how literature represents bodily interaction with earth, rain, and mud—the unglamorous material world often elided in romantic or heroic genres. Its obsolescence reflects urbanization and changing relationships to rural landscapes.
Also Known As
soak mire muddy wet
Skip to main content