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

soothly

Archaic Terms
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

An adverb meaning "truly," "indeed," or "in truth," used to affirm the veracity of a statement in archaic or poetic language.

Detailed Definition
"Soothly" derives from Old English "soth" (truth) plus the adverbial suffix "-ly," creating an emphatic affirmation meaning "truly" or "indeed." The term appears throughout medieval literature as a marker of veracity and earnestness, with poets using it to signal authentic testimony or sincere declaration. Chaucer employed "soothly" when narrators or characters needed to emphasize truthfulness, making it a rhetorical device for establishing credibility. The word's Anglo-Saxon roots gave it native English dignity, contrasting with Romance borrowings, which made it appropriate for plain-spoken truth-telling or folksy wisdom. Its archaic quality later became valuable for poets seeking to recreate medieval voices or invoke the authority of older literary traditions. The term's association with truth-telling made it essential for oaths, vows, and solemn pronouncements in verse.
Example
Example in poetry:
"Soothly, I say unto thee" appears in medieval verse to mean "truly" or "indeed"; The bard declared soothly that winter's grip would soon release the land; In Chaucer's tales, characters often speak soothly to emphasize their honesty; The knight swore soothly by his honor that he would return; Soothly spoken words carry more weight than empty flattery; "I tell you soothly," said the prophet, "dawn shall break ere long"
Additional Notes
“Soothly” derives from “sooth,” meaning truth, and serves as an emphatic affirmation equivalent to “indeed” or “truly.” In older texts and religious writings, it conveys sincerity or reverence, often marking solemn declarations. Poets use it to add an air of authenticity or moral gravity, and its use signals elevated diction typical of medieval or early modern verse.
Also Known As
truly indeed verily really
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