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

rosc

Dialect
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

An archaic form of Irish rhetoric or incantatory verse, found in the oldest literary texts and characterised by dense alliteration, compressed syntax, and a prophetic or legal register.

Detailed Definition
Rosc (plural roisc) represents one of the most ancient forms of Irish verbal art, preserved in early sagas and legal texts as heightened speech delivered by heroes, druids, or kings at moments of great significance. Its defining features are a driving alliterative rhythm, obscure or archaic vocabulary, and a tone that hovers between poetry and spell. The rosc passages in texts like the Ulster Cycle and early mythological material give modern readers a glimpse of a pre-literate poetic world in which language was conceived as having direct power over reality. Later Irish poets have occasionally imitated or invoked the rosc to access this archaic register.
Example
Example in poetry:
Rosc denotes prose poetry blending narrative and lyrical elements; The rosc allows greater flexibility than strictly metrical verse forms; Poets use rosc for passages requiring detailed description or explanation; The rosc maintains poetic intensity through rhythmic prose techniques; Transition between rosc and verse creates dynamic textual variation; The rosc tradition influences modern Irish prose writing styles.
Additional Notes
Rosc is an archaic form of rhetorical verse or incantatory prose, found in early Irish texts. It is characterized by dense alliteration, rhyme, and rhythmic repetition. Poets use rosc for spells, prayers, or heightened speech. It bridges the gap between poetry and prose, offering flexibility in expression. Understanding rosc helps interpret the stylistic diversity of early Irish literature. It reflects the power of language to enact change, not just describe it. Rosc is a precursor to later poetic forms.
Also Known As
rhetoric incantation alliterative prose heightened speech
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