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

Meadowsweet

Flora
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 perennial herb with clusters of creamy-white flowers and sweet fragrance, growing in damp meadows.

Detailed Definition
Meadowsweet symbolizes uselessness or neglect in Victorian language, but its fragrance and traditional uses contradict this. In poetry, meadowsweet evokes wet meadows, streams, and midsummer. Its almond-scented flowers provide olfactory richness. The plant's old names—queen of the meadow—suggest royalty among humble plants. Its use as strewing herb and in mead-making links it to domestic comfort and celebration. Poets employ meadowsweet to represent overlooked beauty, things devalued despite worth, and the rich life of wet margins and meadows.
Example
Example in poetry:
Meadowsweet's frothy white flowers and sweet scent symbolize uselessness and frivolity (ironically given medicinal use); In stream-side poetry, meadowsweet represents summer abundance and riparian beauty; The plant's aspirin-like properties connect to poems about nature's pharmacy; The flowers' almond-honey fragrance creates rich olfactory imagery; Meadowsweet in mead-making adds associations with fermentation and ancient beverages; The plant's folk names (queen of the meadow) suggest regal presence in humble places
Additional Notes
Meadowsweet thrives in damp meadows and along streams, and its creamy flower clusters and sweet scent make it a classic plant of pastoral waterways. It can symbolise gentle pleasure, natural sweetness, and the richness of wetland edges. Historically used to flavour drinks and in herbal practice, it can link landscape with human craft. In poetry, meadowsweet often works as a background perfume in summer scenes, a soft counterpart to sharper scents like mint or thyme.
Also Known As
Queen of the Meadow Spiraea
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