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

Maypole dance

Dance
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 springtime communal dance performed around a decorated pole, often with ribbons woven into patterns. In poetry, it symbolises fertility, renewal, courtship, and village celebration.

Detailed Definition
The Maypole dance is linked with European spring festivals, especially May Day customs in which dancers circle a flower-decked pole and weave coloured ribbons around it. Its circular form and seasonal setting connect it with renewal, fertility, youth, and the reawakening of nature. Poets use the dance to create scenes of pastoral festivity, communal harmony, and innocent courtship. It may also carry political or religious associations, representing suppressed folk custom, lost rural unity, or an idealised past viewed from a more divided and modern world.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Children circled the Maypole, weaving spring into coloured ribbons” presents the dance as seasonal renewal; A poet may use the Maypole dance to symbolise fertility, courtship, and village unity; “The ribbons crossed like promises around the bright pole” turns the pattern into a metaphor for relationship; Maypole dance imagery may celebrate communal joy or mourn the disappearance of rural customs under religious, industrial, or social change.
Additional Notes
Maypole dance is associated with spring festivals, especially May Day, and commonly involves dancers circling a decorated pole or weaving ribbons around it. In poetry, its patterns can symbolise fertility, youth, courtship, communal interdependence, and seasonal renewal. It may also evoke conflict over folk customs that were condemned or suppressed at various times. Students should examine whether the poem idealises village harmony or mourns a lost tradition. Related terms include May Day, pastoral, ribbon dance, spring rite, and fertility symbolism.
Also Known As
May dance Ribbon dance Maypole ribbon dance
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