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 O

Once bitten twice shy

Idiomatic Phrase
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

Once bitten twice shy|Idiomatic Phrase|Proverb meaning one becomes cautious after a bad experience; suggests that past harm or disappointment leads to wariness in similar future situations.

Detailed Definition
Once bitten twice shy means that a painful or harmful experience makes a person more cautious in future. In poetry, it is useful for love, betrayal, injury, political disillusionment, childhood fear, or social risk. The bite image gives memory a bodily mark: caution is not abstract but learned through hurt. A poet may use it sympathetically to explain guardedness, or critically when fear prevents renewal. The phrase explores how past wounds educate, protect, and sometimes imprison the self.
Example
Example in poetry:
A love poem might say once bitten, twice shy when the speaker hesitates before a second promise; In a comic animal poem, the dog avoids the goose because once bitten, twice shy; The proverb means a painful experience makes someone more cautious; A poet can use it for memory and self-protection.
Additional Notes
Once bitten, twice shy means a painful experience makes someone cautious in the future. The proverb is useful in poetry about love, betrayal, childhood, animals, risk, and memory. The bite image makes learning bodily and defensive. Students should compare it with learn the hard way. The phrase may express wisdom, but it may also show how fear prevents renewed trust, intimacy, or adventure after injury.
Also Known As
cautious after experience
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