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

perch

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 unit of length equal to 5.5 yards, synonymous with rod and pole; also a unit of area equaling 30.25 square yards.

Detailed Definition
"Perch" shares its measurement with rod and pole at 16.5 feet, deriving from Latin "pertica," meaning a long staff or pole. As a square measure, one perch equals 30.25 square yards. The term's multiple meanings—bird's resting place, fish species, measuring unit, and elevated position—enriched its poetic applications. Medieval and Renaissance poets used "perch" to ground property descriptions in legal precision while simultaneously evoking natural imagery through its avian associations. This semantic layering allowed writers to blend concrete measurement with metaphorical flight, creating resonance between earthbound possession and spiritual aspiration. The perch as measurement anchors poems in historical land practices while its homonymic richness enables wordplay and thematic depth.
Example
Example in poetry:
In surveying poetry, "they marked the boundaries by rod and perch, sixteen-foot increments defining ownership"; Agricultural verse might reference "the field measured thirty perches square"; In historical poetry about medieval land measurement, "rod, pole, and perch—three names for one measure, language reflecting regional variation"; Poetry about property describes "legal descriptions in rods and perches, numbers defining what eyes can see and hands can touch"; In verse about traditional crafts, "the surveyor's perch marked in white, visible across plowed fields"; Modern poets writing about land measurement might contrast "GPS coordinates replace rods and perches, satellites measuring what surveyors once walked with chains."
Additional Notes
The perch's synonymy with rod and pole (all = 5.5 yards = 16.5 feet) demonstrates regional vocabulary variation for identical measurement. Students should understand that perch was more common in some English regions, rod in others, pole in yet others—regional dialect affecting measurement terminology. The term derives from Latin "pertica" (long staff/pole), referencing the physical measuring rod. In poetry about land surveying, property boundaries, or rural England, perch/rod/pole provides authentic measurement vocabulary with regional flavor. Understanding that perch also measures area (square perch = 30.25 square yards) helps students grasp dual linear and areal applications. The term's multiple meanings (measurement unit, bird's resting place, fish species) enables wordplay. Students should recognize that choosing "perch" versus "rod" versus "pole" can signal regional setting or dialect. Related terms include chain (4 perches), furlong (40 perches), and acre (160 square perches). For students writing about land measurement, regional dialects, or rural landscapes, perch adds authentic terminology. The perch can represent boundaries, possession, regional identity encoded in measurement vocabulary, or the physical practice of measuring with wooden rods.
Also Known As
perch rod rod
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