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 I

Illyria

Historical Location
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 region along the Adriatic coast, used as a setting in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night

Detailed Definition
Illyria was an ancient Balkan region, but in literature it is best known as the romantic, semi-mythical setting of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Poets and writers use Illyria to evoke a dreamlike land of mistaken identities, love, and transformation—symbolizing emotional dislocation and the fluidity of identity in a liminal, enchanted space.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” Illyria is a poetic realm of mistaken identity and romantic chaos; Romantic poets like Byron reference Illyria in travels through the Balkans; Modern Balkan poets reclaim Illyria as pre-Slavic heritage; In allegorical verse, Illyria symbolizes liminal spaces of transformation; Contemporary poetry uses Illyria to explore Adriatic identity and historical layering.
Additional Notes
Illyria, a Roman province on the Adriatic, is best known from Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” as a romantic, fictionalized setting. In poetry, it symbolizes liminality, mistaken identity, and transformation. Modern Balkan poets reclaim it as pre-Slavic heritage. Students should note its contrast with historical Illyria and its use as a poetic space of possibility.
Also Known As
Adriatic Illyria Shakespeare’s Coast Land of Orsino Balkan Frontier
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