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 S

Self-loathing

Psychology
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

Intense dislike or hatred of oneself, often tied to shame or failure.

Detailed Definition
Self-loathing in poetry turns inward through diminishing imagery, self-reproach, and confessional rawness. It appears in confessional and existential verse, where the speaker dissects their flaws. Poets use it to explore trauma, addiction, or societal rejection. Self-loathing invites readers into painful honesty, often challenging empathy. Yet the act of articulation can become a step toward self-understanding, making the poem a site of both wounding and tentative healing.
Example
Example in poetry:
Self-loathing in Sylvia Plath's confessional poetry where self-loathing is a theme; In Robert Lowell's poetry, self-loathing is explored; In contemporary confessional poetry, self-loathing is a frequent emotion; In "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," self-loathing is a theme; In dramatic monologues, self-loathing is often a turning point; In "Lady Lazarus," self-loathing is expressed.
Additional Notes
Self-loathing in poetry turns inward through diminishing imagery, self-reproach, and confessional rawness, exploring trauma, addiction, or societal rejection. In teaching, distinguish self-loathing from shame: self-loathing is hatred of self, while shame is a sense of worthlessness. It invites readers into painful honesty, challenging empathy yet becoming a step toward self-understanding. Students should examine how poets use self-deprecating imagery, confessions of failure, and harsh self-judgment to convey self-loathing's raw, unflinching honesty.
Also Known As
Self-hatred self-contempt self-abasement shame
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