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

Gratitude

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

Gratitude: A deep and profound feeling of thankfulness and appreciation for a benefit received, an emotion central to poetic reflection on grace, kindness, and the recognition of goodness.

Detailed Definition
Gratitude in poetry warms through simple images—bread, light, a friend's face—and measured, gracious tones. Poets celebrate it in pastoral verse, elegies for small mercies, or spiritual thanksgivings. Gratitude counters despair, anchoring the speaker in present abundance. Yet it can be complex, tinged with guilt or awareness of loss, as in post-traumatic recovery or immigrant narratives, where thankfulness coexists with grief.
Example
Example in poetry:
Gratitude in E.E. Cummings' "i thank You God for most this amazing" expresses deep gratitude for life; Edgar Allan Poe's "Gratitude" compares praise to a captive bird's song; Samuel Woodworth's "The Tear of Gratitude" describes gratitude as a gem; Joy Harjo's poems express gratitude for creation; "A Catalogue of Unabashed Gratitude" lists what the speaker is thankful for; The poem "Gratitude" from Poems (Cook) contrasts human ingratitude with animal loyalty.
Additional Notes
Gratitude in poetry warms through simple images—bread, light, a friend's face—and measured, gracious tones, celebrating small mercies in pastoral verse, elegies, or spiritual thanksgivings. In teaching, distinguish gratitude from contentment: gratitude is thankfulness for a benefit, while contentment is a satisfied state. Gratitude counters despair, anchoring the speaker in present abundance. It can be complex, tinged with guilt or awareness of loss. Students should examine how poets use plain diction, second-person address, and imagery of everyday gifts to convey gratitude's grounding power.
Also Known As
Thanksgiving appreciation recognition praise indebtedness grammercy
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