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 G

Ghyll

Landscape
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 narrow ravine or wooded stream valley. It is especially associated with northern English country.

Detailed Definition
A ghyll is a steep, often tree-filled cleft cut by a lively stream. Mossy stones, sudden waterfalls, and overhanging branches give it a close, echoing atmosphere. Poets can use a ghyll as a threshold between ordinary paths and a more secluded natural world, where light is broken into fragments and water seems to speak. Its confined shape also makes it effective for scenes of concealment, fear, wonder, or concentrated sensory attention.
Example
Example in poetry:
“The ghyll narrowed until daylight was only a ribbon above,” using ghyll for a steep, wooded ravine; A poet might write “water hurried through the ghyll over black stone” to stress sound and movement; “Ferns crowded the ghyll’s dripping walls,” captures its damp microclimate; “We lost the path in the ghyll and followed the stream instead,” makes the landscape active in the poem
Additional Notes
A ghyll is a narrow, often wooded ravine or gorge, usually with a stream running between steep banks; the word is especially associated with northern England. Its enclosed terrain can create effects of shade, echo, secrecy, or sudden descent. Compare the broader glen and the Scottish linn. Study hint: map the speaker’s movement through the ghyll and note how sound and light are restricted.
Also Known As
Gill Cleugh Clough
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