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

Performativity

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

Performativity is the capacity of language to perform an action or bring about a state of affairs, not just describe it. Saying something can make it so.

Detailed Definition
J.L. Austin's speech act theory. In poetry, language is performative, creating emotions, commitments, or realities. A poem can enact its own meaning, making things happen through its address. This idea is central to political poetry, vows, and incantations. Poetry's performative power highlights its ability to do work in the world, shaping consciousness and influencing action through the force of utterance.
Example
Example in poetry:
A poem of praise, like a hymn, is performative, as it acts to bless or glorify; A political poem, like Shelley's "England in 1819," is performative in its attempt to incite change; An elegy, such as Tennyson's "In Memoriam," is performative as it enacts a process of mourning and consolation; A love poem is performative, as it does not just describe love but performs the act of wooing or affirming it.
Additional Notes
Performativity is the capacity of language to do things, to perform actions, rather than merely describe them. J.L. Austin's speech act theory distinguishes between constative utterances (which describe) and performative utterances (which perform, such as promising, naming, or marrying). In poetry, language is inherently performative; a poem does not just describe feelings but enacts them, creating a world and an experience for the reader. A political poem is performative in its attempt to move its audience to action, and a love poem is performative in its act of loving address. This concept highlights poetry's power as an active force in the world, showing that words can shape reality, create commitments, and influence consciousness.
Also Known As
Speech act Performative utterance Enactment
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