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

Shrovetide

Historical Festival
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

Christian pre-Lenten period of feasting and confession, culminating in Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras)

Detailed Definition
Shrovetide involves using up rich foods before Lent, with pancakes, confessions (“shriving”), and carnival. In poetry, it appears in medieval lyrics and Chaucer. Poets use it to explore themes of indulgence before austerity, the tension between flesh and spirit, and the joy of communal excess—making it a symbol of human frailty, preparation, and the bittersweet nature of farewell to pleasure.
Example
Example in poetry:
Medieval lyrics like “Shrove Tuesday” describe Shrovetide with confession and feasting; Poets use Shrovetide to explore repentance, indulgence, and carnival before Lent; In modern verse, Shrovetide symbolizes last celebration before discipline; The season appears in February–March poetry as sugary farewell; Poets contrast pancakes with fasting bread; Social poets reference Shrovetide as communal release.
Additional Notes
Shrovetide (pre-Lenten period, culminating in Shrove Tuesday/Pancake Day) was a time of confession (“shriving”) and feasting before fasting; in poetry, it symbolizes indulgence, preparation, and temporal thresholds—ideal for carnivalesque, penitential, or seasonal verse exploring the tension between excess and restraint.
Also Known As
Shrove Tuesday Pancake Day Carnival (in broader context)
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