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 R

Reichsthaler

Archaic Terms
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 large silver coin used in the Holy Roman Empire and later German states, important in early modern trade.

Detailed Definition
The reichsthaler was a high-value thaler coin bearing imperial titles, circulating widely across German-speaking lands and influencing other currencies. In poetry, it can signal a central European milieu of merchants, soldiers, and princes balancing ledgers and alliances. Its long, heavy name suits stately rhythms and can underscore the weight of money in shaping politics and personal fates. Poets might mention it in tales of dowries, mercenary pay, or gambling, using the coin to symbolise both stability—a trusted standard—and the fragility of systems that ultimately crumble under war and inflation.
Example
Example in poetry:
He staked a reichsthaler on a card and lost not only the coin but his composure; Wages came in reichsthalers, taxes in threats, and hope in small, steady songs; The poem lets a single reichsthaler gleam on the table, symbol of power and its cost; Poets use reichsthalers to evoke a baroque world of courts, mercenaries, and fragile treaties.
Additional Notes
Reichsthaler sits at the intersection of imperial ambition and everyday commerce in early modern Central Europe. In poetry, naming this coin can instantly suggest a German-speaking milieu of princes, mercenaries, and merchants. Because of its long, weighty sound, it can reinforce solemn or baroque tonalities. Poets might connect reichsthalers with mercenary pay, dowries, or ransoms, thereby exploring themes of loyalty and commodified service. Students can use it as a case study in how technical monetary vocabulary can add precision and atmosphere to historical poems without lengthy exposition.
Also Known As
German thaler
Skip to main content