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

Imago

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

Imago is an unconscious, idealized image of a person, particularly a parent, which influences adult relationships. It is a psychic representation from early life.

Detailed Definition
Jung and Freud used the term for unconscious images. In poetry, it appears in figures of idealized figures who embody deep-seated desires or fears. Poets explore these images, using them to understand identity and emotional conflict. The imago functions as a core metaphor, revealing the lasting power of formative relationships on the poetic imagination and the complexities of love and memory.
Example
Example in poetry:
The figure of the idealized mother appears as an imago in many of the poems of Sylvia Plath, shaping her conflicted sense of self; The memory of a lost father can function as an imago in a poet's work, as seen in the poems of Theodor Adorno; The imago of a dead lover haunts the poetry of Thomas Hardy, appearing in his elegies as an idealized, ghostly presence; A poet's early childhood self can become an imago, a persistent psychic image that is explored in the confessional poetry of Robert Lowell.
Additional Notes
Imago is a term from depth psychology, particularly associated with Carl Jung, referring to an unconscious, idealized mental image of a significant person, especially a parent or a childhood figure. This imago is not a realistic portrait but a psychic representation, often carrying a powerful emotional charge that influences our adult relationships and expectations. It can be positive or negative, becoming a source of attraction or fear. In poetry, the imago often appears as a central, idealized figure—a lost love, a revered parent, or a mythic hero. A poet's exploration of these images can reveal deep-seated desires and conflicts. For the poet, understanding the imago can be a way to delve into their own psychology and to create powerful, resonant characters and themes in their work.
Also Known As
Inner image Parental imago Psychic representation
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