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-Reflection

Metaphysics
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

Introspective examination of one’s thoughts, motives, and spiritual state, often serving as the engine of metaphysical poetic inquiry.

Detailed Definition
Self-reflection in this tradition is not passive but active interrogation—questioning sin, doubt, or desire to arrive at truth. Poets use it to dramatize the soul’s dialogue with itself and God, making inner conflict the site of revelation and transformation.
Example
Example in poetry:
John Donne’s “The Collar” dramatizes inner conflict between rebellion and submission to God; Emily Dickinson’s “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” reflects on mental disintegration from within; George Herbert’s “Love (III)” shows the soul’s self-examination before accepting divine grace; T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” reveals anxious self-scrutiny and social insecurity; Sylvia Plath’s “Mirror” uses the reflective surface as a metaphor for unflinching self-confrontation; Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” quietly examines desire versus duty through introspective narration.
Additional Notes
Self-Reflection in metaphysical poetry functions as both devotional exercise and philosophical method; Herbert’s “The Collar” or “The Holdfast” turn inward to examine conscience, doubt, and desire, using dramatic monologue and conceit to model the soul’s dialogue with itself and God—this introspective mode reveals how metaphysical poets treat the self not as isolated ego but as contested ground where divine grace and human will negotiate meaning.
Also Known As
Introspection Self-Examination Inner Contemplation Soul-Searching
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