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 P

pard

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

An archaic or poetic term for a leopard or panther; used in literary contexts for exotic or fierce wild felines.

Detailed Definition
"Pard" derives from Greek "pardos" through Latin "pardus," meaning leopard or panther. The term appears in poetry requiring elevated or archaic diction for exotic beasts. Shakespeare used it when depicting fierce or beautiful wild animals, and biblical translations employed it alongside lions and bears. The word's classical origin gave it learned dignity appropriate to formal poetry. Its brevity made it metrically useful while its exoticism suited descriptions of foreign lands, dangerous creatures, or heraldic beasts. Poets valued such archaic animal names for creating distance from prosaic modern vocabulary—"pard" elevated leopards to literary creatures. The term appears in contexts requiring either classical atmosphere or deliberate archaism. Its associations with speed, beauty, and ferocity made it symbolically rich. The word exemplifies how archaic animal terminology enriched poetic vocabulary, offering alternatives to common names that carried additional literary and classical associations valuable for elevated or exotic description.
Example
Example in poetry:
The spotted pard stalked through the jungle; "Swift as a pard" describes great speed; Pard is poetic term for leopard or panther; Heraldic shields often featured the pard; Dante's pard symbolized lust and temptation; The pard's spots camouflaged it perfectly
Additional Notes
Pard appears primarily in exotic, elevated, or classical contexts as poetic alternative to "leopard" or "panther." The term's association with classical literature and eastern exoticism gives it romantic coloring. Spenser, Milton, and other elevated poets employ it for its archaic flavor. Related to "leopard" and "panther" etymologically (Latin "pardus"). Essential for analyzing exotic animal imagery, classical allusion, and archaic diction choices. The term rarely appears in realistic contexts, marking instead poetic or mythological registers. Useful for discussing how poets choose between common and archaic terms for metrical, sonic, or atmospheric purposes, the use of exotic animals in symbolism, and classical learning's influence on English poetic vocabulary.
Also Known As
leopard panther
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