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

mooncalf

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

A foolish or absent-minded person; originally, a malformed fetus thought to be caused by the moon’s influence.

Detailed Definition
Coined in the 16th century, “mooncalf” blended superstition (the moon’s effect on biology) with ridicule. Shakespeare used it in “The Tempest” to mock Caliban’s grotesque nature. In poetry, it serves as a colorful insult or comic descriptor, evoking both absurdity and cosmic whimsy. The term reflects early modern beliefs in lunar influence on human behavior and physiology. Its vivid imagery and rhythmic oddity make it memorable in satirical or fantastical verse, where it underscores folly, monstrosity, or the irrational.
Example
Example in poetry:
Thou clumsy mooncalf, what hast thou done? (fool, dolt); The poor mooncalf understood nothing (simpleton, monster); Call me not mooncalf, for I am no fool! (misshapen creature, idiot); That mooncalf has broken the best pitcher (blockhead); A mooncalf born beneath an evil moon (deformed being, monster); The mooncalf stumbled through his simple tasks (foolish person, dolt)
Additional Notes
Mooncalf originally denoted a deformed fetus or monster, thought to result from lunar influence (moon = lunacy connection). The term evolved to mean a foolish, absent-minded person or dolt. Shakespeare uses "mooncalf" in The Tempest for Caliban, combining monstrousness and foolishness. Students should recognize the term's trajectory from physical deformity to mental deficiency, reflecting historical theories of lunar influence on human development and sanity. The insult suggests someone whose brain was addled by the moon. In literature, mooncalf appears as both noun and epithet. By the 18th century, the physiological meaning faded, leaving only "fool." The term's strangeness and harsh sound reinforce its insulting quality. Compare "lunatic" (also from lunar influence) and "changeling" (fairy-substituted child, another supernatural explanation for abnormality).
Also Known As
moon-calf moone-calfe dolt
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