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

virtu

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 love of or taste for fine art and curios; objects of art collectively; also excellence or virtuosity in artistic matters, from Italian "virtù."

Detailed Definition
"Virtu" (also "vertu") derives from Italian "virtù" (excellence, virtue), referring to refined artistic taste, love of beautiful objects, and excellence in arts. The term gained currency in English during the Renaissance and Grand Tour era when collecting art and curios became fashionable among educated classes. It appears in literature depicting connoisseurship, collecting, or aesthetic refinement where specialized vocabulary for artistic culture mattered. Poets and writers used "virtu" when exploring themes of taste, cultivation, and the pursuit of beauty. The word distinguished refined aesthetic appreciation from mere ownership, suggesting cultivated judgment and genuine understanding. Its Italian origin gave it sophisticated, cosmopolitan associations appropriate to discussions of art and culture. The term appears in contexts exploring relationships between wealth, education, and aesthetic sensibility, where the cultivation of taste marked social and cultural achievement. Its archaic quality suited works examining historical artistic culture and collecting practices.
Example
Example in poetry:
A love of or taste for fine art and objects of beauty; The collector's virtu filled his mansion with treasures; Browning explores themes of virtu in Italian Renaissance settings; Her virtu led her to seek out rare manuscripts; Objects of virtu adorned the nobleman's cabinet; Pope satirizes those who value virtu over virtue
Additional Notes
“Virtu” (from Italian virtù) refers to connoisseurship or refined appreciation of art and antiquities. In poetry and essays, it often implies cultivated taste or the pursuit of beauty for its own sake. Recognising this term reveals Enlightenment and Renaissance attitudes toward art, learning, and aesthetic refinement.
Also Known As
art artistry taste connoisseurship
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