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

lithe

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

Flexible, supple, or graceful in body movement; bending easily without breaking; also means gentle, mild, or yielding in disposition or manner.

Detailed Definition
“Lithe” describes physical agility or softness, as in “lithe as a willow.” It appears in Romantic and descriptive poetry to evoke natural grace or youthful vitality. Its liquid consonants mirror its meaning, enhancing sensory imagery. Though still used, its archaic flavor in verse highlights organic harmony, whether in dancers, trees, or flowing water.
Example
Example in poetry:
Her lithe form danced upon the green (flexible, supple); With lithe movements the cat stalked its prey (agile, graceful); The lithe young willow bent before the wind (limber, pliant); Lithe as a serpent through the grass he crept (flexible, supple); The dancer's lithe body moved with grace (supple, nimble); Lithe branches swayed in the gentle breeze (flexible, bending easily)
Additional Notes
Lithe describes suppleness and graceful flexibility in movement, especially of body. Unlike modern "limber" (suggesting exercise-gained flexibility), lithe emphasizes natural, often feminine grace. In poetry, lithe applies to dancers, animals (especially cats and snakes), and young people. The term can also mean gentle or mild (archaic secondary meaning). Students should recognize lithe's aesthetic and positive connotations—it's praise, not neutral description. Etymology from Old English lithe (soft, mild, gentle). Shakespeare uses it for graceful movement. Romantic and Victorian poets apply lithe to idealized female figures, sometimes problematically. In nature poetry, lithe describes plants bending gracefully. The sound of the word—soft consonants—reinforces its meaning. Compare "supple" (more physical), "graceful" (more aesthetic), "lithe" (combining both).
Also Known As
lythe lissome flexible sinewy
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