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 N

naught

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

Nothing; zero; of no value or worth; used for emphatic negation, as in "it came to nought" or in moral contexts meaning worthlessness or emptiness.

Detailed Definition
“Naught” served as the negative counterpart to “aught,” meaning “nothing” or “none,” but also carried moral connotations of evil or folly (e.g., “a naught man”). It appears in proverbs, sonnets, and dramatic verse to express absence, futility, or condemnation. Its stark monosyllable fits elegiac or ironic tones, and its pairing with “aught” creates binary tension in metaphysical poetry. Though “not” or “nothing” replaced it in speech, “naught” endures in literary contexts for its symbolic weight and rhythmic austerity.
Example
Example in poetry:
All our plans have come to naught (nothing, ruin); Naught remains of the ancient city now (nothing); It matters naught to me what others think (not at all); For naught did we labor all these years (nothing, in vain); Naught could prevent the coming doom (nothing); Set it all at naught and start anew (nothing, worthless)

“All his wealth was nought but dust,” in a vanitas lyric; In Shakespeare: “And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company nowadays... nought but madness”; “Nought remains of Troy but ash”; “She cared for nought but truth”; “His boasts came to nought”; Nought endures but love and song.
Additional Notes
Naught means "nothing" or "zero," but also carries moral connotations of wickedness or worthlessness. The phrase "come to naught" means to fail or amount to nothing. "Set at naught" means to despise or consider worthless. Students should recognize both quantitative (nothing, zero) and qualitative (wicked, worthless) meanings. Shakespeare uses naught in both senses. In mathematics, "naught" historically meant zero before "zero" was adopted. The King James Bible uses naught for wickedness: "thoughts of naught." Confusingly, "naught" (nothing) contrasts with "aught" (anything), creating a minimal pair. In poetry, naught appears in philosophical contexts about existence and value. Modern British English preserves "nought" for zero, while American English rarely uses the term. Understanding naught's dual meanings—quantitative and moral—is crucial for proper interpretation.

“Nought” (variant of “naught”) signifies nothingness or worthlessness; in existential or penitential verse, “all is nought” echoes vanitas themes, reducing worldly pursuits to void through stark negation.
Also Known As
nought nawt nothing zero nil nuttin' nowt
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