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 M

Marathon

Battles
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 490 BCE Greek victory over Persia, inspiring the modern marathon race.

Detailed Definition
Marathon became a symbol of democratic courage and civic duty. In poetry, it evokes the lone runner’s sacrifice (Pheidippides) and the defense of freedom against tyranny, often used to celebrate endurance, patriotism, and the birth of Western ideals.
Example
Example in poetry:
The Battle of Marathon inspired Lord Byron’s reference in “Don Juan”: “The mountains look on Marathon—and Marathon looks on the sea”; poets use Marathon to symbolize democratic defiance against tyranny; modern verse often links the runner Pheidippides’ legend to themes of endurance and message-bearing; Marathon appears in poetry as the birthplace of Western freedom; educational poems use Marathon to teach about ancient Greece and the origins of the marathon race; some poets contrast Marathon’s glory with later imperial overreach.
Additional Notes
Marathon (490 BCE) was an Athenian victory over Persia, foundational to Western notions of democracy and freedom. The legend of Pheidippides’ run inspired the modern marathon race and appears in Romantic poetry (e.g., Byron). Students should explore how Marathon is mythologized as the “birth of the West” and how poets use it to reflect on civic virtue. Its coastal setting also invites ecopoetic readings. Useful for tracing classical allusions in modern verse and examining the politics of historical memory.
Other Meanings of “Marathon”
Also Known As
Battle of Marathon
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