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

Mockingbird

Birds
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 songbird renowned for mimicking other birds’ calls and symbolizing innocence.

Detailed Definition
The mockingbird’s pure song and harmless nature make it a symbol of uncorrupted voice and vulnerability, famously invoked in Harper Lee’s title as a metaphor for the innocent persecuted. In poetry, it represents artistic imitation, empathy, and the fragility of truth. Its mimicry allows poets to explore identity, authenticity, and the power of borrowed voices in a complex world.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Harper Lee-inspired poetry, the mockingbird symbolizes the innocent harmed by prejudice; Walt Whitman praises the mockingbird’s song as “the wild gurgling of joy” in “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking”; Poets use its mimicry to explore voice, identity, and empathy; In Southern U.S. verse, the mockingbird represents regional pride and natural abundance; Its nocturnal singing becomes a metaphor for persistent hope or unheeded truth.
Additional Notes
The mockingbird, famed for its imitative song and harmless nature, symbolizes innocence, artistic mimicry, and vulnerable truth-telling. Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” cemented its association with the persecuted innocent. Walt Whitman celebrated its “wild gurgling” as pure joy. Related concepts: “voice of empathy,” “borrowed song,” “Southern symbol.” Ideal for exploring authenticity, performance, and the ethics of representation in poetry.
Also Known As
Northern Mockingbird Mimus polyglottos Mimic Thrush
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