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



Fleur-de-lis

Flora
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 stylized iris used in heraldry, representing the lily flower in French symbolic tradition.

Detailed Definition
The fleur-de-lis appears in poetry as a symbol of French royalty, purity, and spiritual perfection. Its three petals represent faith, wisdom, and chivalry, or the Holy Trinity. In heraldic poetry, it signifies noble lineage and divine right. The stylized form lifts the actual iris into symbolic realm, representing how nature's forms are transformed into emblems of human power and spirituality. Poets use fleur-de-lis to evoke medieval courts, aristocratic ideals, and the distillation of natural beauty into heraldic perfection.
Example
Example in poetry:
Fleur-de-lis represents French royalty, heraldry, and the stylized beauty of symbolic art; In historical poetry, the flower symbolizes monarchy, divine right, and political power; The iris-based symbol connects natural beauty to abstracted design in ekphrastic poetry; Fleur-de-lis in architecture and decoration appears in poems about pattern and ornament; The symbol's religious associations (Holy Trinity) add spiritual dimensions; In New Orleans poetry, fleur-de-lis represents cultural identity and regional pride
Additional Notes
Fleur-de-lis is not a plant in the literal field-guide sense but a stylised iris emblem, so it functions as botanical symbolism mediated through heraldry. It can signify France, monarchy, chivalry, faith, or the long afterlife of symbols. In poems, it often appears on banners, gates, stained glass, or clothing, letting writers blend floral imagery with politics and identity. As an iris form, it can also carry connotations of elegance and sharp, sword-like leaves.
Also Known As
Iris (heraldic) Flower-de-Luce
Skip to main content