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

Surréalisme

French
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 20th-century avant-garde movement founded by André Breton in 1924, seeking to liberate the unconscious through automatic writing, dream imagery, and the creative power of irrational association.

Detailed Definition
Surrealism is the most influential poetic movement to emerge from France in the 20th century, founded by André Breton whose Manifeste du surréalisme of 1924 proclaimed the liberation of the unconscious through automatic writing and the exploration of dream logic. Inspired by Freudian psychoanalysis and the explosive imagery of Rimbaud and Lautréamont, Surrealist poetry by Breton, Aragon, Éluard, Desnos, and Péret creates meaning through the shock of unexpected image combinations that bypass rational censorship. Its influence on global poetry, art, and film was enormous. Surrealism permanently expanded the territory available to French poetry, making the irrational, the dream, and the erotic legitimate subjects of serious poetic exploration.
Example
Example in poetry:
André Breton’s poetry exemplifies Surréalisme through dream logic and unexpected imagery; A surrealist poem might juxtapose clocks, fish, and burning roses without rational explanation; Students identify automatic writing techniques as central to Surréalisme; A modern poem using subconscious associations continues surrealist practice
Additional Notes
Surréalisme in French poetry is inseparable from twentieth-century experimentation with dream logic, automatic writing, unexpected juxtapositions, and the liberation of unconscious association. Students should connect the movement with André Breton and related avant-garde circles. Compare with Symbolism, but note Surrealism’s more radical challenge to rational control. Interpretation often requires attention to psychological, visual, and associative logic rather than conventional narrative coherence or explicit thematic exposition.
Also Known As
Surrealism
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