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

Spell

Technique
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

Poetic incantation using rhythmic language and repetition to evoke magic, ritual, or hypnotic effect.

Detailed Definition
Spells in poetry mimic charms with alliteration and cadence, as in ancient runes or Yeats's mysticism; they appear to harness language's performative power, blur reality and enchantment, and explore the occult, captivating readers in ritualistic forms.
Example
Example in poetry:
Ancient incantations demonstrate poetry's roots in magical practice and performative speech; A contemporary love poem might use repetition and imperative mood to invoke spell-like effects; H.D.'s "Trilogy" treats poetry as spell for healing traumatized post-war consciousness; Spell poems acknowledge language's power to shape reality and consciousness; Robert Duncan's poetry invokes spell traditions from multiple mystical and occult sources; The spell form emphasizes poetry's performative dimension where saying makes it so
Additional Notes
The spell represents poetic language operating as incantation, where rhythmic repetition, formulaic phrasing, and sonic patterning aim to create hypnotic, ritual, or transformative effects beyond semantic communication. Poetry's origins intertwine with magical practice—ancient cultures used verse for healing, cursing, blessing, and invoking supernatural powers. The spell employs specific techniques: rhythmic insistence creating trance states, repetition accumulating power through reiteration, imperative mood commanding reality to change, and formal constraints (like rhyme) suggesting binding magical efficacy. Charm traditions in various cultures preserve this ancient function of verse. Modern poets adapt spell techniques for aesthetic rather than literal magical purposes—Sylvia Plath's "Daddy" uses spell-like repetition and ritualistic language for psychological exorcism. Performance poetry and slam often employ spell-like rhythmic intensity. When teaching spells, help students recognize how rhythm and repetition create physiological effects independent of meaning—the body responds to patterned sound. Understanding spells reveals poetry's archaic functions and its power to affect listeners beyond rational persuasion, working instead through rhythmic entrainment and incantatory insistence that bypasses critical consciousness.
Also Known As
Charm Incantation Enchantment Dharani Hex
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