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.

After the death of my mother, 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.

My wife and I are simplifying our days. The server, the monitoring, and the residual obligations that come with keeping a site alive no longer fit the quieter life we want.

From 4 November 2026 I will not be adding new poems or musical poems to the 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.

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

Perpetual repetend

Device
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 perpetual repetend is a recurring phrase, line, or motif that suggests eternal recurrence, cyclical time, or inescapable fate through insistent repetition.

Detailed Definition
A repeated line, refrain, or recurring element that suggests eternal recurrence, endless continuation, or perpetual repetition. The perpetual repetend creates effects of infinity, obsession, inevitability, or timelessness through repetition seeming capable of continuing forever. Dylan Thomas's refrains, liturgical responses, or any repeated element suggesting the cycle transcends temporal limits exemplify this technique. The repetition points toward eternity or psychological fixation.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Gertrude Stein’s “Tender Buttons,” the phrase “A rose is a rose is a rose” exemplifies a perpetual repetend that loops meaning into abstraction; Samuel Beckett’s poetic fragments often use phrases like “I can’t go on, I’ll go on” as a recursive, unending loop; Contemporary poet Anne Carson repeats “No one hears you. No one hears you.” in “The Glass Essay” to evoke emotional stasis; In ritual incantations, lines like “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust” function as perpetual repetends anchoring cyclical time; The mantra-like repetition in Rumi’s ghazals (“Die before you die”) creates a spiritual perpetual repetend inviting transcendence.
Additional Notes
Suggests endless continuation. Creates hypnotic effect or sense of eternity. Related to circular structures and obsessive themes.
Also Known As
Eternal repetend Endless refrain Infinite echo Continuous repetition
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