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



Regifugium

Historical Festival
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 festival on February 24 commemorating the expulsion of the last king and the founding of the Republic

Detailed Definition
The Regifugium, meaning "flight of the king," was observed on February 24 to commemorate the expulsion of Tarquinius Superbus, Rome's last monarch, in 509 BCE. The Rex Sacrorum performed sacrifices then fled the Forum, ritually reenacting the king's departure. This ceremony concluded the year in the old Roman calendar and symbolized Rome's rejection of tyranny. In poetry, Regifugium represents republican ideals, the transition from monarchy to liberty, and the ritual preservation of historical memory, often invoked in political verse celebrating freedom from despotism.
Example
Example in poetry:
Regifugium appears in Roman poetry marking the king's flight and Republic's birth; Poets describe the ritual reenactment of monarchy's expulsion; "At Regifugium, the king flees as liberty dawns in Rome" shows usage; The festival provides material for verses on political revolution and freedom; Roman lyrics employ Regifugal imagery for themes of tyranny's end and civic renewal; Modern poets use the term for exploring regime change and republican virtue
Additional Notes
Regifugium on February 24 commemorated the last king's expulsion and the Republic's founding, ritually reenacting this foundational moment annually. The festival's dramatic character, possibly including a ritual flight, demonstrates Roman practices of commemorating historical events through repeated ritual performance. Understanding Regifugium helps contextualize Roman republican ideology and its religious expression. The festival transforms political history into religious observance, making the Republic's founding a sacred rather than merely political event requiring annual commemoration.
Also Known As
kingly flight Tarquin expulsion republican dawn
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