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

Sluagh

Folklore
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

Host of the unforgiven dead in Celtic mythology, flying through the air to steal souls

Detailed Definition
Sluagh are restless, malevolent spirits. In poetry, they symbolize unresolved sin, the terror of the afterlife, and the weight of collective guilt, frequently appearing in gothic or Celtic revival contexts.
Example
Example in poetry:
Sluagh, the restless dead of Celtic myth, haunt aerial poetry: "Sluagh ride the storm from west to east—stealing souls of those who stray"; Poets use them to explore purgatory: "Not damned, not saved—Sluagh fly in endless, hungry packs"; In cautionary tales, they punish the unburied: "Close the window, bar the door—Sluagh seek the breath of dying men"; Their flight inspires ominous imagery: "Hear the rush of unseen wings—Sluagh pass, and peace is gone"
Additional Notes
Sluagh: Restless, airborne dead in Irish and Scottish Gaelic folklore, flying from the west in flocks to abduct souls or cause mischief. Often the spirits of the unforgiven. In poetry, they embody exile, spiritual unrest, and the danger of the sky. Useful in Celtic eschatology or gothic verse; contrast with the Wild Hunt for comparative spectral processions. Their westward origin ties to Otherworld cosmology—rich for directional symbolism.
Also Known As
Sluagh na marbh Host of the Dead Sluagh Spirits
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