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 W

Whole nine yards

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

An idiomatic phrase meaning everything, the whole extent, or all possible details, used emphatically to indicate completeness, totality, or maximum effort in a situation.

Detailed Definition
Whole nine yards means the complete extent, full effort, or everything involved in a situation. In poetry, the idiom gives totality a conversational, energetic feel, useful for comic exaggeration, dramatic voice, and descriptions of wholehearted commitment. It can describe love, labour, celebration, failure, confession, or a life given completely to a cause. A poet may use it to suggest abundance or overkill. The phrase is useful for expressing completeness without solemnity, making grand scale sound ordinary and human.
Example
Example in poetry:
A celebratory poem might say the village gave the returning sailor the whole nine yards: bells, banners, supper, and song; In a craft poem, the performer gives the whole nine yards in one breathless finale; The phrase means everything possible or the full effort; A poet can use it for abundance.
Additional Notes
Whole nine yards means everything, the full extent, or complete effort. Its origin is uncertain and much debated, making it a useful example of how idioms can thrive without secure etymology. In poetry, it creates a colloquial sense of totality, often comic or emphatic. Students should compare it with whole shebang, lock stock and barrel, and whole kit and caboodle. It suits energetic speech and exhaustive catalogues.
Also Known As
everything
Skip to main content