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.

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 S

Saint Vladimir

Saints
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

10th-century Grand Prince of Kiev who Christianized Russia, patron of Russian lands.

Detailed Definition
Saint Vladimir's mass baptism of Kievan Rus symbolizes national conversion and cultural transformation in epic historical and Slavic foundational poetry.
Example
Example in poetry:
Saint Vladimir is celebrated in Slavic historical poetry as the Grand Prince whose mass baptism Christianized Kievan Rus', symbolizing national conversion and royal piety.; Poets reference Saint Vladimir in epic verses on the shift from paganism to Orthodoxy, portraying him as a foundational figure in Russian spiritual identity.; In Orthodox liturgical poetry, he appears alongside his grandmother Olga as architects of Eastern Slavic Christianity.; A poet might dramatize the baptism of the Dnieper in narrative lyrics exploring cultural transformation through faith.; His patronage of Russian lands inspires patriotic sequences meditating on sovereignty and divine blessing.; Modern Russian poets invoke Saint Vladimir when reflecting on historical memory and the enduring legacy of Byzantine mission.
Additional Notes
Saint Vladimir the Great (c. 958-1015), Grand Prince of Kiev, converted from Slavic paganism to Byzantine Christianity around 988 after evaluating faiths, ordering the mass baptism of his people in the Dnieper River and establishing Orthodoxy as the state religion of Kievan Rus', earning him the title "Equal-to-the-Apostles" and patronage of Russian and Ukrainian lands. Legends credit his choice partly to the beauty of Hagia Sophia's liturgy, symbolizing aesthetic conversion. In Slavic poetry and chronicles like the Primary Chronicle, he represents national spiritual awakening and cultural shift from paganism. Usage tip: invoke in epic or historical verse on royal baptism, cultural encounter, or beauty's role in faith, dramatizing the Dnieper event for transformative motifs; related to his grandmother Olga or Cyril/Methodius, he enriches Eastern European identity poetry or missionary themes, helping students examine how political power intersects with evangelization and how Byzantine influence shaped Slavic literary and spiritual traditions.
Also Known As
Vladimir the Great Volodymyr the Great Vladimir Sviatoslavich St. Vladimir of Kiev Basil in Baptism
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