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

Spae

Dialect
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

A Scots verb meaning to foretell the future, to prophesy; in poetry, it introduces fate, supernatural foresight, and the solemn act of divination.

Detailed Definition
"Spae" belongs to the ancient tradition of Scottish prophecy and second sight, and in poetry it carries the weight of that tradition. The "spae-wife" or female prophet is a recurring figure in Scottish folk narrative, and the verb "spae" connects the mundane world to the supernatural. In verse it introduces mystery, fate, and the uncanny, and it appears in ballads and poems that explore the boundary between knowledge and foreknowledge. The word's brevity makes it mysterious, a single syllable that opens onto vast, unknowable territory.
Example
Example in poetry:
"Spae" means to foretell, predict, or prophesy; A poet might write: "The spaewife looked in the dark pool's face — / and saw a future she couldna erase." for a supernatural poem; "He could spae the weather by the cloud — / and never spoke his knowledge aloud." characterises rural wisdom; "Nae mortal can truly spae the heart — / it changes course as water in the start." reflects on the limits of prophecy; "She spae'd that love would come in spring — / and so it did, on the robin's wing." uses gentle prophecy; "Tae spae the future is a heavy gift — / it fills the space between the rift." reflects on the burden of foresight
Additional Notes
Spae is one of the most mythologically resonant words in Scots, connecting the everyday world of prediction and guessing to the ancient tradition of prophecy, second sight, and the uncanny knowledge of "spae-wives" (female seers or fortune-tellers). The "spae-wife" was a real social figure in Scottish communities, consulted for knowledge of the future, the whereabouts of lost goods, and the identities of future lovers. Burns fictionalises this tradition in "Halloween," where young people attempt to divine their matrimonial futures. For students, "spae" connects Scots verse to a deep tradition of folk belief in supernatural knowledge, a tradition that the Enlightenment never quite managed to extinguish.
Also Known As
Foretell Prophesy Divine
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