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



Saul

Biblical
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

Saul is the first king of Israel in the Hebrew Bible, whose initial favor with God gave way to jealousy, disobedience, and tragic downfall.

Detailed Definition
Saul disobeyed Samuel, grew jealous of David, and died in battle. His tragic arc warns of pride. In poetry, Saul symbolizes the burden of kingship, the corrosion of envy, and the pathos of a leader abandoned by divine spirit yet retaining nobility.
Example
Example in poetry:
In 1 Samuel 9–31, Saul’s rise and fall inspires tragic poetry about jealousy and rejection; Shakespearean allusions depict Saul as tormented king; Miltonic verse portrays Saul’s armor and final fall at Gilboa; Contemporary poems explore Saul’s early promise versus later paranoia; In poems about music, David’s harp soothes Saul yet cannot save him; Educational poems cite Saul to teach about kingship and divine favor.
Additional Notes
Saul appears as both the first king of Israel (1 Samuel) and the pre-conversion name of Paul; context is crucial—King Saul’s tragic arc contrasts with Paul’s transformative journey; poets must distinguish between the two to explore themes of kingship, jealousy, or radical conversion.
Also Known As
Saul king of Israel Saul son of Kish Paul (post-conversion name) King Saul
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