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

Levellers

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

The Levellers were a radical political movement and group of reformers during the English Civil War (1640s), advocating for greater equality, expanded suffrage, religious toleration, and popular sovereignty.

Detailed Definition
The Levellers emerged toward the end of the First English Civil War as a populist faction within the Parliamentarian (Roundhead) side, primarily associated with figures like John Lilburne, Richard Overton, and William Walwyn. They pushed for constitutional reforms including an "Agreement of the People," which proposed broader voting rights (though excluding servants and beggars in some versions), legal equality, and limits on parliamentary and military power. Though suppressed by Oliver Cromwell and the army grandees after the Putney Debates and Burford mutiny, their ideas influenced later democratic thought. In poetry and literature, the term "leveller" often evokes ideas of radical equalization, most famously in James Shirley's poem "Death the Leveller," where death is personified as the ultimate force that levels social distinctions.
Example
Example in poetry:
In James Shirley's 17th-century poem "Death the Leveller": "The glories of our blood and state Are shadows, not substantial things; There is no armour against Fate; Death lays his icy hand on kings: Sceptre and Crown Must tumble down, And in the dust be equal made With the poor crookèd scythe and spade." Here, "Leveller" metaphorically refers to death as an egalitarian force that erases hierarchies, echoing the Levellers' push for equality in a literary context.
Additional Notes
Historical context/origin: The name "Levellers" was initially a pejorative term used by opponents (suggesting they wanted to "level" property or society). The movement peaked around 1646–1649 but was largely crushed by 1649. They are distinct from the more communitarian "True Levellers" or Diggers led by Gerrard Winstanley. Related terms: Diggers (True Levellers), Agitators (army representatives), Putney Debates; contrasts with Royalists or more conservative Parliamentarians. In poetry/literature: Beyond Shirley's famous use, the concept appears in discussions of social equality or mortality in English literature. Modern references may allude to their democratic legacy. Etymology: From "level," implying making things flat or equal. Not a single individual but a collective "historical figure" in political and literary history. This entry fits the "Historical Figure" category by treating the Levellers as a key group/personification in historical and poetic contexts.
Also Known As
The Levellers Leveller Movement
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