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

Plague

World Religion
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 widespread calamity or disease, often depicted in scripture as divine punishment or a test of faith.

Detailed Definition
Plagues, such as the ten plagues of Egypt in the Book of Exodus, are dramatic manifestations of divine power used to punish oppressors, compel repentance, or demonstrate sovereignty. In poetry, plagues represent collective suffering, divine wrath, and the vulnerability of human life. They are a backdrop for exploring themes of justice, mercy, the morality of God, and human responses to catastrophe—from despair to renewed faith. The plague serves as a powerful symbol of existential crisis.
Example
Example in poetry:
In biblical poetry, Plague is divine judgment: “Frogs, darkness, death—Plague breaks Pharaoh’s pride”; In contemporary verse, Plague is pandemic: “Empty streets—Plague reveals society’s fractures”; In Sufi poetry, Plague of separation is worse: “No virus, but absence—Plague of the Beloved’s distance”; Poets link Plague to justice: “Whose bodies bear Plague? Always the poor, the unseen.”
Additional Notes
Plagues in Exodus serve as divine judgments that dismantle Pharaoh’s power; in Job or apocalyptic literature, they test or purify; poets deploy plague imagery not just as punishment but as revelation—exposing societal rot, human hubris, or the fragility of order, often calling for collective repentance or radical compassion.
Also Known As
Plague of Egypt Divine Scourge murrain Pestilence
Skip to main content