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.

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 H

Hand over fist

Idiomatic Phrase
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 idiomatic phrase describing rapid accumulation or gain, especially of wealth or success; nautical in origin, it conveys swift progress in verse and creates dynamic imagery of momentum and abundant increase.

Detailed Definition
Hand over fist means rapidly and in large amounts, most often applied to making money but also usable for gaining, losing, or accumulating something quickly. In poetry, it can support satire of greed, capitalism, gambling, exploitation, or sudden prosperity. The phrase’s physical image of hands working quickly suggests grasping, pulling, and relentless acquisition. It can sound comic or critical depending on context. A poet may use it to contrast material gain with spiritual emptiness, or rapid profit with human cost.
Example
Example in poetry:
A satire of commerce may show the landlord making money hand over fist; In a gold-rush ballad, fortune seems to arrive hand over fist before vanishing; The phrase can describe rapid gain, usually money; A poet might use it to criticise greed gathering faster than conscience.
Additional Notes
Hand over fist means rapidly, especially in relation to making or gaining money. Its likely nautical associations involve pulling a rope quickly with alternating hands. In poetry, it can be used for greed, profit, growth, loss, or accumulating consequences. The phrase is energetic and physical, turning abstraction into repeated grasping. Students should consider whether the rapid gain is comic, admirable, exploitative, or unstable.
Also Known As
rapidly
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