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

Hybris

Philosophy
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

Hybris is excessive pride or overreach that defies divine or natural limits. In Greek thought, it invites nemesis (retribution) through cosmic balance.

Detailed Definition
Poetry warns against hybris through tragic narratives or ironic juxtapositions. The lyric may depict ambition’s allure but also its cost, framing humility as wisdom. This philosophical concept grounds ethical limits in cosmic order, making poems cautionary tales about the perils of unbounded self-assertion.
Example
Example in poetry:
John Milton’s Satan in Paradise Lost embodies hybris through rebellion against divine order; W.B. Yeats’s “Leda and the Swan” shows divine violence overwhelming human agency; Percy Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound critiques Zeus’s tyranny but also human overreach; Robert Frost’s “The Oven Bird” warns against singing too proudly in diminished times; Seamus Heaney’s “Punishment” implicates speaker’s hybris in judging ancient victim; William Butler Yeats’s “The Second Coming” depicts civilization’s hubristic collapse.
Additional Notes
Hybris is Greek overreach defying limits, inviting nemesis. In poetry, it appears as tragic ambition: Milton’s Satan, Yeats’s Leda. Students should note warnings against unchecked power or pride. Related to hubris, nemesis, and moralism. Professors can contrast ancient hybris with modern individualism.
Also Known As
Hubris Pride Arrogance
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