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

Infinite refrain

Device
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 refrain suggesting infinite recurrence through open-ended phrasing, cyclical structure, or unresolved closure.

Detailed Definition
A refrain, repetend, or recurring element suggesting endless continuation, eternal recurrence, or perpetual repetition beyond the poem's boundaries. The infinite refrain creates effects of eternity, obsession, or inevitability through repetition that seems capable of continuing forever. Poe's "Nevermore," Blake's prophetic refrains, and choruses suggesting eternal cycles exemplify this technique. The repetition transcends the poem's finite length to suggest infinite temporal extension.
Example
Example in poetry:
Dylan Thomas’ “Do not go gentle into that good night” uses infinite refrain “Rage, rage against the dying of the light”; Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” repeats “I celebrate myself” as infinite refrain; Contemporary poet Tracy K. Smith’s “The United States Welcomes You” uses “Open your mouths” as infinite refrain of threat; Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” employs infinite refrain questioning justice; Langston Hughes’ “Let America Be America Again” uses “America never was America to me” as infinite refrain; Yusef Komunyakaa’s “Facing It” repeats “I’m stone” as infinite refrain of grief.
Additional Notes
Creates sense of endlessness or eternal recurrence. Psychological effect of repetition suggesting obsession or permanence. Related to circular structures and eternal return themes.
Also Known As
Eternal refrain Endless repetend Perpetual echo Continuous chorus Endless refrain
Skip to main content