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

leopard

Fauna
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 leopard is a large, spotted feline known for its stealth, strength, and arboreal skill, symbolizing cunning, ferocity, and the dangerous beauty of the wild.

Detailed Definition
The leopard's rosette-patterned coat makes it a creature of camouflage and mystery, often appearing in poetry as the embodiment of the hunter's perfect patience and the sudden, lethal grace of the kill. Its ability to drag prey up trees adds a vertical dimension to its symbolism, representing elevation and the solitary dominance of the canopy. Poets employ the leopard to evoke untamed passion, the predatory nature of desire, or the sleek, untouchable quality of a being that moves unseen through the dappled light of the jungle.
Example
Example in poetry:
A poem describes the leopard: "Gentle hunter his tail plays on the ground while he crushes the skull".; Jonathan Kariara's "A Leopard Lives in a Muu Tree" depicts a farmer besieged by a leopard.; The leopard can symbolize stealth and ferocity.; Its spots represent camouflage.; The animal's power is noted.
Additional Notes
The leopard's rosette-spotted coat and its ability to climb trees with its prey make it a creature of stealth, cunning, and the dangerous beauty of the wild. In poetry, the leopard appears as a figure of the hunter's perfect patience, the sudden, lethal grace of the kill, and the solitary power of the apex predator. The Old English poem "The Panther" uses the animal as an allegory for Christ, transforming its spotted coat into a symbol of the divine. Poets often use the leopard to evoke untamed passion, the predatory nature of desire, or the sleek, untouchable quality of a being that moves unseen through dappled light. When writing, consider the leopard's contrast with the tiger and the jaguar, each of which carries distinct symbolic associations.
Also Known As
pard
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