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 L

lacketh

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

Third-person singular present tense of “lack,” meaning “he/she/it lacks” or “is without.”

Detailed Definition
“Lacketh” is a verb form common in Early Modern English, particularly in poetic and biblical texts such as the King James Version and Shakespeare’s sonnets. It imparts a formal, rhythmic cadence suited to iambic meter and contributes to the solemn or elevated tone typical of devotional or philosophical verse. The suffix “-eth” marks archaic conjugation, distinguishing it from modern “lacks.” Poets employed “lacketh” to emphasize absence—of virtue, love, fortune, or divine grace—often as part of moral or existential reflection. Its use preserves syntactic regularity while enhancing the timeless, lyrical quality of the language.
Example
Example in poetry:
The widow lacketh comfort in her lonely bower; His verse lacketh the fire and passion of true poetry; The garden lacketh water and the flowers droop and fade; She lacketh not for courage though her strength be small; The beggar lacketh bread while nobles feast in splendor; Though he lacketh wealth, his spirit remains unbroken and free
Additional Notes
"Lacketh" exemplifies the Early Modern English third-person singular present tense conjugation using "-eth" instead of modern "-s." This grammatical form was standard from Middle English through the early 17th century, gradually yielding to the "-s" form that became universal in modern English. The verb "lack" itself means to be without or deficient in something needed or desired. In poetry, "lacketh" often appears in philosophical or melancholic contexts, expressing absence, need, or deprivation. The King James Bible uses this construction extensively, influencing later poetic diction. Related archaic forms include "wanteth," "needeth," and "requireth." When using "lacketh," poets should maintain consistency with other archaic verb forms in the same work. The extra syllable compared to "lacks" can be metrically useful in iambic or other traditional meters. Understanding this conjugation pattern helps readers navigate Renaissance and early modern texts while providing contemporary poets with tools for creating period-appropriate or elevated registers in their own work.
Also Known As
lacks wanteth
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