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.

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

John Wilkes Booth

Historical Figure
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

American actor (1838–1865) who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.

Detailed Definition
Booth’s act shocked the nation and ended Reconstruction hopes for many. In poetry, he represents political violence, theatricality turned deadly, and the dark side of celebrity or ideology. Poets invoke him to meditate on assassination’s impact, the intersection of performance and politics, and the psychology of radical action in American history.
Example
Example in poetry:
Poets reference John Wilkes Booth to symbolize the intersection of theatrical performance and deadly political ideology in the assassination of Lincoln.; Verse might explore his act as a dramatic gesture with lasting national trauma.; A poet could use Booth to meditate on the psychology of radical action and the dark side of celebrity in American history.; In historical poetry, he embodies violent disruption of democratic hopes and the consequences of fanaticism.; Poets draw on the event to examine themes of loss, reconstruction, and the fragility of leadership.; Booth allows reflection on how individual violence reshapes collective memory and progress.
Additional Notes
John Wilkes Booth provides modern poetry with a dark archetype of theatricality turned to political violence. As the actor who assassinated Abraham Lincoln in 1865, he shocked the nation and altered Reconstruction’s course. Usage tip: explore the intersection of performance and ideology through dramatic monologues or reflections on fame’s lethal potential; contrast his dramatic gesture with Lincoln’s legacy to examine trauma and lost possibilities. In verse he symbolizes radical action’s consequences and the psychology of fanaticism. Related concepts include American political violence and the cult of celebrity. Students can use Booth to probe how individual acts reshape collective memory, making him suitable for poems on history’s turning points and the shadow side of performative identity in national tragedy.
Also Known As
J. Wilkes Booth John W. Booth
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