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



Ravana

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

Ravana is the ten-headed demon king of Lanka in the Ramayana, whose abduction of Sita triggers a cosmic battle between dharma and adharma.

Detailed Definition
Ravana, a learned but arrogant ruler, was ultimately defeated by Rama. He symbolizes the corruption of knowledge by ego and desire. Poets reference him to explore the duality of intellect and morality, the consequences of lust, and the necessity of divine justice.
Example
Example in poetry:
Ravana appears in mythological poetry: "Ten heads chant Vedas— / Ravana’s knowledge vast, / but his heart craves Sita"; In tragic verse, he symbolizes corrupted power: "King of Lanka, lord of gold— / Ravana’s pride built his prison, / and his downfall"; Poets reference him in meditations on desire: "He could have ruled the world— / but Ravana wanted one woman, / and lost everything"; He embodies the danger of ego: "Boons made him near-immortal— / Ravana forgot only gods / can defy fate"; In modern poetry, he represents intellectual arrogance: "His library held all wisdom— / yet Ravana couldn’t read / the lesson of humility"; Contemporary poets reclaim his nuance: "Not just demon— / Ravana was scholar, musician, / undone by one blind spot"
Additional Notes
Ravana, the ten-headed demon king of Lanka in the Ramayana, is a learned scholar and devotee of Shiva who abducts Sita, leading to his downfall. In poetry, he symbolizes the corruption of knowledge by ego, the dangers of unchecked desire, and the tragic potential of the antagonist. When using Ravana, avoid one-dimensional villainy; his complexity—great power undermined by lust—offers rich psychological depth. Related concepts include boons (divine gifts that enable his near-invincibility), kama (desire), and the Ravana Gita (his philosophical teachings); modern interpretations sometimes reclaim him as a Dravidian hero resisting Aryan hegemony.
Also Known As
The Ten-Headed Demon King Lord of Lanka Abductor of Sita
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