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

Henbane

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 poisonous plant with sticky, hairy foliage and bell-shaped flowers, used historically as narcotic and in witchcraft.

Detailed Definition
Henbane carries dark associations in poetry: poison, intoxication, witchcraft, and murder. Its narcotic properties and folkloric connections to magic make it represent altered consciousness and dangerous knowledge. In Shakespeare, it's the poison poured in King Hamlet's ear. Poets invoke henbane to suggest evil intent, forbidden practices, or knowledge that harms. The plant's unpleasant smell and sinister reputation make it symbol of malignant nature and the dark side of the plant kingdom, where beauty and benevolence give way to danger.
Example
Example in poetry:
Henbane's narcotic properties and toxic nature represent danger, witchcraft, and dark magic; In Shakespearean and medieval poetry, henbane is the poisoner's plant par excellence; The plant's unpleasant smell contrasts with its pale, veined flowers, symbolizing hidden corruption; Henbane in witch garden poetry represents traditional herb lore and feared knowledge; The plant's hallucinogenic effects add themes of altered consciousness and dangerous vision; In gothic verse, henbane creates atmosphere of decay, death, and malevolence
Additional Notes
Henbane is steeped in dark history: a poisonous plant used as narcotic and associated with witchcraft and old pharmacology. In poetry it can signify altered states, dangerous knowledge, or the thin line between medicine and poison. Its sticky hairs and murky-veined flowers create an unsettling aesthetic, useful for Gothic or morally ambiguous scenes. It also works as a lesson in the power of plant lore: a single name can summon centuries of fear, remedy, and superstition.
Also Known As
Black Henbane Stinking Nightshade
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