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 W

watchman

Historical Office
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 night guard who patrols streets or buildings to prevent crime and raise alarms

Detailed Definition
The watchman appears in poetry as a figure of vigilance and urban solitude. Historically calling the hours and watching for fire or theft, watchmen marked the night’s passage. In verse—from Shakespeare to Blake—they symbolize alertness, isolation, and the fragile barrier between order and chaos. Poets use watchmen to explore themes of time, protection, and the human presence that guards society’s sleep.
Example
Example in poetry:
In nocturnal odes, the watchman calls the hour beneath gaslit eaves; Poets depict the watchman as solitary sentinel against chaos and crime; His lantern becomes a star fallen to earth; In Shakespearean verse, the watchman stumbles upon plots and passions; The watchman’s cry—“All’s well!”—echoes with ironic hope; Contemporary poetry uses “watchman” to explore vigilance, isolation, and time.
Additional Notes
Watchmen patrolled streets at night with lanterns and halberds, calling the hour and raising alarms; precursors to police, they offered limited security—poetic watchmen may symbolize vigilance, futility, or the fragile boundary between order and chaos; their calls (“All’s well!”) punctuate nocturnal cityscapes in drama and lyric poetry.
Also Known As
night watch watch guard constable Sentry
Skip to main content