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 Z

zany

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 term rooted in comic performance, describing a figure of exaggerated foolishness or eccentric behaviour, often used in poetry to inject energetic humour, absurdity, or playful disruption.

Detailed Definition
Originally linked to comic servants, zany in poetry signals exaggerated foolishness and physical humour. Poets used it to energise verse with absurdity and theatricality, often highlighting the contrast between sense and nonsense. The term’s lively tone suits playful satire and imaginative characterisation.
Example
Example in poetry:
In its older theatrical sense, a zany is a comic servant or clown, descended from the Italian commedia dell’arte zanni; a poem may cast such a figure as a witty foil to a proud speaker; “The zany tumbles sense into delight,” uses the noun as a playful stage character; In a mock-heroic couplet, “While kings debate, the zany drops his hat, / And turns high tragedy to acrobat,” the clown deflates grandeur; Shakespeare’s fools and clowns, though not always called zanies, offer useful models for poetry that mixes folly, satire, and sharp insight; In contemporary usage, zany usually means wildly silly or exuberantly comic: “Her zany metaphors cartwheeled through the elegy,” where comic motion deliberately unsettles solemn tone
Additional Notes
Zany originates in comic performance and signals energetic foolishness. In poetry, it contributes movement, surprise, and tonal lightness. Poets use it to disrupt seriousness and invite imaginative play. Recognising zany figures helps explain shifts in mood and the role of humour in verse.
Also Known As
Clown Fool Merry Andrew
Skip to main content