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

span

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

A unit of length equal to nine inches, based on the distance from thumb tip to little finger tip of an outstretched hand.

Detailed Definition
The span, measuring approximately nine inches, derives from the width of an outstretched human hand from thumb to little finger. Like the cubit, it represents anthropometric measurement, grounding dimension in bodily experience. Biblical texts use spans (the Ark's dimensions included spans), as do classical sources. In poetry, "span" serves double duty: as measurement and as metaphor for brief duration or limited extent—"life's brief span" being a common poetic phrase. This duality enriches literary usage, allowing poets to move fluidly between concrete physical measurement and abstract temporal or experiential limitation. The hand-based measurement connects human scale to architectural or natural grandeur, emphasizing proportion and the human body as fundamental reference point.
Example
Example in poetry:
In poetry about small measurements, "a span from thumb to little finger, the hand stretched wide measuring"; Biblical translations reference "the giant stood six cubits and a span" for specific dimensional description; Poetry exploring anthropometric measurement uses "span—our hands measuring what eyes perceive"; In verse about human scale, "builders measured in spans before rulers, body providing standard"; Historical poetry about ancient construction might describe "the altar's dimensions specified in cubits and spans, sacred geometry based on human proportions"; Modern poets writing about measurement history often invoke "before meters came spans and cubits, before abstract units came body parts—we measured world by ourselves."
Additional Notes
The span's anthropometric origin (distance from thumb to little finger of outstretched hand, approximately 9 inches) makes it universally comprehensible. Students should understand that span appears in biblical texts (the Ark's dimensions included spans) and ancient measurement systems. The term's dual meaning—physical measurement and temporal duration ("life's brief span")—creates rich poetic possibilities. Understanding that span typically equals half cubit or three palms helps students grasp body-based measurement relationships. In poetry about ancient measurement, human scale, or exploiting temporal/spatial wordplay, span provides versatile terminology. The hand-spread origin makes span immediately visualizable—everyone can measure a span. Students should recognize how span enables metaphorical extension from spatial to temporal measurement—"brief span of life" connects measurable hand-spread to unmeasurable time. Related terms include palm, digit, and cubit, all anthropometric measures. For students writing about ancient contexts, human-scaled measurement, or exploiting wordplay between space and time, span offers authentic measurement with metaphorical richness. The span can represent human scale, mortality (brief span of life), or the body as measuring instrument. The term connects tangible physical measurement to abstract temporal experience.
Also Known As
span length hand span Bridge
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