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 K

kith

Archaic Terms
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

One's friends, acquaintances, and relatives; familiar people and places; usually paired with "kin" in the phrase "kith and kin."

Detailed Definition
"Kith" derives from Old English "cȳþþ" (knowledge, kinship), originally meaning one's native land or known people, evolving to mean friends and acquaintances as distinct from blood relatives (kin). The phrase "kith and kin" comprehensively described one's entire social network—relatives and friends, blood and choice. The term appears in poetry exploring belonging, exile, and social bonds where distinguishing family from friendship mattered. "Kith" alone rarely appears in modern usage, surviving primarily in the paired phrase, but archaic poetry used it independently when discussing familiar people and places. Its emphasis on knowledge and familiarity—kith were those one knew—distinguished chosen relationships from biological ones. Poets valued this distinction when exploring themes of community, belonging, and the various bonds connecting individuals. The word's near-obsolescence outside the fixed phrase makes its independent use particularly archaic and formal, suitable for elevated discussions of social connection.
Example
Example in poetry:
He searched for kith and kin throughout the realm; "Among my kith I found no welcome"; Kith means friends, neighbors, and acquaintances; Kith originally meant one's native land; The phrase kith and kin means everyone you know; Exile separates one from kith and kin
Additional Notes
Kith appears almost exclusively in the phrase "kith and kin," meaning friends and family, acquaintances and blood relations. The term's obsolescence outside this fossilized phrase obscures its original meaning (native land, familiar people and places). Related to "uncouth" (unknown, strange - literally "not couth"). Essential for analyzing community representation, the relationship between place and people, and how literature constructs belonging. Medieval texts sometimes use "kith" independently for native land or acquaintances. Useful for discussing how formulaic phrases preserve obsolete words, the representation of social networks in literature, and how texts distinguish blood relationships from chosen affiliations. The term's survival only in fixed phrase shows how some archaic words persist in frozen expressions.
Also Known As
friends relations kinfolk kindred
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