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

Rue

Flora
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 bitter herb with yellow flowers, symbolizing regret, repentance, and grace.

Detailed Definition
Rue appears in poetry as a symbol of sorrowful reflection and moral clarity. Ophelia’s “rue for you” in Shakespeare conveys both pity and reproach. Its medicinal bitterness makes it a metaphor for necessary pain, while its resilience suggests the possibility of healing through remorse.
Example
Example in poetry:
Rue appears in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” as symbol of regret and repentance: Ophelia says, “There’s rue for you; and here’s some for me: we may call it herb-grace o’ Sundays. O you must wear your rue with a difference”; In medieval poetry, rue was “herb of grace” used in exorcisms and for protection; Victorian floriography assigned rue the meaning “disdain” or “clear vision”; Modern herbalist poets praise its bitter clarity: “Chew rue to see the truth, though it stings”; In love poetry, it signifies sorrowful wisdom: “After love, I planted rue—not for bitterness, but to remember”; In eco-poetry, its blue-green foliage inspires color metaphors: “Rue leaves—sea glass in the herb garden.”
Additional Notes
Rue (Ruta graveolens) symbolizes regret, repentance, and bitter clarity—“rue the day” originates from its name; in Shakespeare (“Hamlet”), Ophelia offers it as “the herb of grace o’ Sundays,” linking it to sorrow and moral reckoning; its blue-green, pungent foliage suits sensory descriptions of austerity; historically used to ward off plague, it adds layers of protection or purification in allegorical verse.
Also Known As
Herb-of-Grace Common Rue ruth
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