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

Nonsense

Philosophy
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

Nonsense is language that defies logic, reason, or conventional meaning. It can be playful, absurd, or used to reveal the limits of sense.

Detailed Definition
In philosophy, nonsense is a limit-concept. In poetry, it is a powerful tool for liberation. Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll used nonsense to explore the arbitrariness of language. Poets use it to break conventions, creating new meanings through absurdity. Nonsense poems demonstrate that meaning can arise from the violation of rules, freeing language from the tyranny of logic and opening up new poetic possibilities.
Example
Example in poetry:
Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" is a masterpiece of nonsense poetry, creating meaning through its playful, invented words; The poems of Edward Lear, such as "The Owl and the Pussycat," employ nonsense to explore a world of absurdity and joy; A poem like "The Jumblies" by Lear is a clear example of nonsense, where the story and logic are deliberately absurd; The use of surreal, disconnected imagery in a poem by André Breton can be seen as a form of poetic nonsense, challenging rational meaning.
Additional Notes
Nonsense in poetry is a deliberate use of language that defies logic, grammar, or conventional meaning, yet often creates a new, playful, or even profound kind of sense. It is not a lack of meaning but a liberation from the tyranny of reason, often exploring the arbitrary nature of the signifier. The works of Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll are the classic examples, where invented words and absurd situations challenge our expectations. In poetry, nonsense can be a tool for exploring the limits of language, for creating humor and joy, or for making a serious philosophical point about the absurdity of the world. For the poet, nonsense is a freeing, creative force, showing that meaning can be generated through the playful violation of linguistic and logical rules.
Also Known As
Absurdity Wordplay Literary nonsense bollocks For the birds Illogicality Talk through one's hat tush folly
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