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

spats

Apparel
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

Short coverings worn over shoes and ankles, typically with a buttoned side, popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, associated with formal menswear and dandyism.

Detailed Definition
Spats (short for spatterdashes) are a once-fashionable accessory that covered the instep and ankle, protecting shoes from mud and spatter. In poetry, spats often evoke the Edwardian era, the world of business, clubs, and upscale dining. They are a quintessential garment of the dandy, and their white or gray color against dark shoes provides a sharp visual contrast. In satirical verse, spats can be a target of mockery, representing excessive concern with appearances. In love poetry, a gentleman's spats might be noticed by a lady, indicating his attention to detail. Their decline after the 1920s makes them a nostalgic garment, often appearing in poems set in the early 20th century, invoking a bygone era of formality and strict dress codes.
Example
Example in poetry:
"His spats of white cloth were a flash against his black shoes"; "The spats' buttons were a row of small decisions"; "He wore his spats to the club, a man of the old school"; "The spats, once crisp, were now grey with the city's dust"; "She admired his spats and knew he was a man of detail"; "The spats' canvas was a shield against the mud of the street"
Additional Notes
Spats (short for spatterdashes) are a once-fashionable accessory that covered the instep and ankle, protecting shoes from mud and spatter. In poetry, spats often evoke the Edwardian era, the world of business, clubs, and upscale dining. They are a quintessential garment of the dandy, and their white or gray color against dark shoes provides a sharp visual contrast. In satirical verse, spats can be a target of mockery, representing excessive concern with appearances. In love poetry, a gentleman's spats might be noticed by a lady, indicating his attention to detail. Their decline after the 1920s makes them a nostalgic garment, often appearing in poems set in the early 20th century. Related terms include gaiters, puttees, and shoe covers. Students should note the spat's association with Edwardian dandyism and its role in signaling a bygone era of formality.
Also Known As
gaiter covers shoe protectors ankle spatterdashes
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