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

withes

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

Flexible, slender willow twigs or shoots, often twisted or plaited together to form ropes, bands, or bindings.

Detailed Definition
Withes are pliant branches or shoots—most commonly from willow or osier trees—used in pre-industrial contexts as natural cordage for binding, lashing, or weaving. In poetry, the term often appears in pastoral, rustic, or mythological settings to evoke a sense of rural craftsmanship, physical constraint, or the organic materials of the natural world.
Example
Example in poetry:
From the glossary to Robert Burns's poetical works: "Woddie, a rope, more properly one made of withes or willows, a halter." This illustrates the term's practical use in Scots dialect poetry, where a "woddie" (a rope or halter) is explicitly distinguished as being crafted from withes.
Additional Notes
Etymology: From Old English wiþþe ("cord, band, thong"), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European wey- ("to turn, wind, bend"). Cognates include Latin vītis ("vine") and Old Norse vīthir ("withy"). Related terms: "Withy" (a willow tree or its pliant branch), "osier" (a type of willow used for basketry), and "wicker" (woven from such twigs). Usage note: In poetry, "withes" often appears in plural form and can carry connotations of binding, restraint, or imprisonment—as in Samson's captivity or the binding of sacrificial victims. The Middle English Compendium records senses ranging from willow trees and pliant shoots to scourges, ropes, halters, and even garlands. Pitfall to avoid: Do not confuse "withes" with "withers" (the highest part of a horse's back) or "withs" (a variant spelling). The singular "withe" is sometimes confused with "wythe" (a masonry term), though they are etymologically distinct.
Also Known As
flexible twigs willow branches osier binds
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