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 V

virgate

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 medieval English unit of land area equal to approximately 30 acres, one-quarter of a hide; also called a yardland.

Detailed Definition
The virgate (Latin "virgata," from "virga" meaning rod/staff), also known as yardland, measured one-quarter hide or approximately 30 acres of arable land—enough to support one peasant family. This feudal land measure determined peasant holdings and obligations to manorial lords. In medieval historical poetry or verse exploring feudal social structure, virgate provides authentic measurement terminology. The term connects land quantity to social class, obligation, and subsistence capacity. Poets treating medieval agrarian life, peasant conditions, or feudal hierarchy employed virgates to ground descriptions in historical reality, emphasizing how land measurement reflected and enforced social organization in pre-modern England.
Example
Example in poetry:
In medieval historical poetry, "the peasant held one virgate, thirty acres of obligation and subsistence"; Verse about feudal society might describe "each virgate owed labor and tithe, land measured by duty"; Poetry about medieval agriculture uses "four virgates make one hide, measurement reflecting social hierarchy"; In historical verse about Domesday Book, "William's clerks recorded every virgate, quantifying conquest in English measurements"; Modern poets writing about medieval history often invoke "virgate boundaries still visible in field patterns, medieval geometry persisting"; Poetry about class and land describes "the virgater—neither substantial nor destitute, holding thirty acres and occupying England's broad middle."
Additional Notes
The virgate represents medieval English land measurement—approximately 30 acres or 1/4 hide, also called yardland. Students should understand that virgate (from Latin "virgata," from "virga" meaning rod/staff) measured typical peasant landholding in feudal England. The term appears in medieval documents, manorial records, and historical contexts. Understanding that 4 virgates = 1 hide helps students grasp hierarchical medieval land organization. In poetry about medieval agriculture, feudal society, or peasant life, virgates provide authentic measurement connecting land quantity to social class. The virgate represented substantial but not wealthy holding—virgaters were middle peasantry. Students should recognize that land measurement encoded social structure—virgate holders owed specific obligations to manorial lords. Related terms include hide (4 virgates), oxgang (half virgate), and bovate (equivalent to oxgang). For students writing about medieval English society, agricultural history, or feudal organization, virgates add authentic terminology. The virgate can represent medieval social structure, agricultural capacity determining class, or feudal obligations encoded in land quantity. The term evokes medieval villages, strip farming, and the material basis of feudal society where land quantity determined social position.
Also Known As
yardland hide
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