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

Withdrawal

Psychology
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 psychological state of emotional or social retreat, often reflected in poetry through themes of isolation, silence, or introspective distance.

Detailed Definition
Withdrawal can be protective or pathological. Poetry depicts it through enclosed spaces, silence, or fading imagery, exploring its role as defense, grief response, or path to introspection.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Sylvia Plath’s “Tulips,” withdrawal is disrupted by intrusive flowers; In Emily Dickinson’s “I’m Nobody! Who are you?”, withdrawal is chosen over public identity; In T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” withdrawal stems from social anxiety; In Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” withdrawal is peaceful yet transient; In Langston Hughes’ “I, Too,” withdrawal is imposed but temporary; In Ocean Vuong’s “Someday I’ll Love Ocean Vuong,” withdrawal blends with self-reflection.
Additional Notes
Withdrawal—retreating from engagement—is often a response to overwhelm or trauma (Plath, Dickinson); differs from solitude by its defensive quality; poetic techniques include sparse imagery, passive voice, or inward focus; students should analyze whether withdrawal is protective or isolating; note its link to creativity—withdrawal as necessary retreat.
Also Known As
Retreat Detachment Disengagement Isolation Solitude
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