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.

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

Swim with the tide

Idiomatic Phrase
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

Swim with the tide means to follow the majority or conform to prevailing opinions; in social poetry, it explores compliance, safety, or the loss of individuality in exchange for acceptance and ease.

Detailed Definition
Swim with the tide means to conform to prevailing opinion, adapt to circumstances, or move in the same direction as dominant social forces. In poetry, the idiom can suggest wisdom, survival, passivity, opportunism, or loss of individuality. Its water imagery implies that the current carries the swimmer, reducing effort but also limiting choice. A poet may use it neutrally for adaptation or critically for moral surrender. It is useful for contrasting communal movement with independent conscience.
Example
Example in poetry:
A political poem might criticise the cautious official who always swims with the tide; In a survival poem, swimming with the tide may be wisdom rather than cowardice; The phrase means to follow prevailing opinion or circumstances; A poet can use it neutrally or critically.
Additional Notes
Swim with the tide means follow majority opinion, prevailing trends, or the direction of events. In poetry, it can suggest prudence, conformity, opportunism, surrender, or harmony with natural forces. The phrase should be compared with swim against the tide. Students should ask whether going with the tide is wisdom or moral laziness. It pairs well with crowds, currents, fashion, politics, and the difference between belonging and being carried.
Also Known As
conform
Skip to main content