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

Proserpina

Mythology
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

Roman goddess of spring and queen of the underworld, counterpart to Greek Persephone

Detailed Definition
Proserpina is abducted by Pluto and becomes queen of the underworld, her annual return heralding spring. In Roman poetry—especially Claudian’s “De Raptu Proserpinae”—she embodies the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. Poets use her myth to explore themes of loss, maternal grief (with Ceres), and the duality of innocence and sovereignty, making her a poignant figure in elegiac and seasonal verse.
Example
Example in poetry:
Proserpina, queen of the underworld, appears in Ovid’s Metamorphoses abducted by Pluto; Claudian’s De Raptu Proserpinae details her mother Ceres’ grief; In Virgil’s Georgics, Proserpina’s return brings spring; Horace’s Odes warn: “Proserpina claims the young and fair”; In Roman mystery rites, Proserpina symbolizes death and rebirth; Propertius laments lovers “snatched like Proserpina by fate.”
Additional Notes
Proserpina (Greek Persephone) is queen of the underworld and goddess of spring growth; central to Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Claudian’s epic; symbolizes the cycle of life-death-rebirth, female agency, and seasonal change; useful for exploring trauma, marriage, or ecological cycles; students should note her dual role: abducted maiden and powerful queen; her myth explains winter; she is daughter of Ceres and wife of Pluto; later mystery cults promised initiates her salvation.
Also Known As
Persephone Queen of Shades Spring’s Captive Dual Goddess
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