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 H

Hemlock

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 highly poisonous plant with fern-like leaves and small white flowers, infamous as Socrates’ poison.

Detailed Definition
Hemlock symbolizes death, betrayal, and philosophical acceptance in poetry. Its dual nature—graceful yet deadly—makes it a metaphor for beauty that destroys or truth that liberates through sacrifice. Classical and modern poets reference it to explore mortality and moral clarity.
Example
Example in poetry:
Hemlock appears in classical poetry as poison (Socrates): “Hemlock cup—philosophy’s bitter end”; In Keats’s “Ode to a Nightingale,” it’s death’s draught: “Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards, / But on the viewless wings of Poesy... / That I might drink, and leave the world unseen, / And with thee fade away into the forest dim— / Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget... / The weariness, the fever, and the fret... / Where but to think is to be full of sorrow... / Away! away! for I will fly to thee, / Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards, / But on the viewless wings of Poesy... / Already with thee! tender is the night... / My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains / My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk”; In eco-poetry, poison hemlock is invasive danger: “Hemlock spreads where children play”; In contrast, Canadian hemlock (tree) inspires evergreen metaphors; In cautionary verse, it’s deceptive beauty: “Hemlock white flowers—angel’s face, devil’s root”; In modern verse, it’s ecological warning: “Hemlock woolly adelgid kills the eastern giants.”
Additional Notes
Hemlock (Conium maculatum) is infamous as Socrates’ poison, symbolizing death, betrayal, or quietus; distinguish from non-toxic “hemlock tree” (Tsuga); in poetry, it evokes dread or philosophical acceptance; its lace-like white flowers contrast with deadly nature—powerful irony.
Also Known As
Poison Hemlock Water Hemlock (distinct but similar common names)
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