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 J

Jephthah

Biblical
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

Israelite judge who, after vowing to sacrifice “whatever comes out of my house” upon victory, tragically offered his daughter.

Detailed Definition
An outcast Gileadite, Jephthah defeated Ammon but tragically fulfilled his rash vow. His story blends heroism and horror. In poetry, Jephthah embodies the cost of impulsive vows, the ambiguity of leadership from the margins, and the sorrow of unintended consequences in zeal.
Example
Example in poetry:
In John Milton’s "Paradise Lost," Jephthah’s vow (Judges 11) illustrates the cost of rash promises; In Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s "Aurora Leigh," Jephthah symbolizes the tragic hero bound by his word; In William Cowper’s hymns, Jephthah’s daughter’s lament warns against impulsive devotion; In George Herbert’s "The Church-porch," Jephthah’s victory and sorrow model the complexity of faith; In John Keble’s "Lyra Innocentium," Jephthah represents the judge whose zeal brings grief; In Christina Rossetti’s "Goblin Market," Jephthah’s daughter’s dance prefigures innocent sacrifice.
Additional Notes
Jephthah: Judge who defeated Ammon but vowed to sacrifice his daughter (Judges 11). In poetry, Jephthah embodies tragic vow-making, the cost of rash promises, and the tension between military success and personal loss. His daughter’s response (“do to me according to your vow”) is heart-wrenching—ideal for poems on sacrifice, gender, or the ethics of religious commitment.
Also Known As
Jephthah the Gileadite Jephthah the Judge
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