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 A

altera pars

Latin Phrases
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

The other side; the opposing viewpoint or alternative perspective in an argument.

Detailed Definition
Altera pars, "the other side," refers to the opposing position in debate or the alternative perspective often suppressed or ignored. In poetry, this phrase signals the poet's awareness of counterargument, complexity, and the limits of any single viewpoint. Poets invoke it when deliberately including contrary voices, when acknowledging that truth is dialogic rather than monologic. The phrase embodies intellectual fairness and rhetorical sophistication, recognizing that understanding requires entertaining opposition. It appears in dramatic monologues, verse debates, and poems that stage internal conflict, where the speaker grapples with competing claims and refuses easy resolution, honoring the dignity and force of alternative interpretations.
Example
Example in poetry:
Dramatic monologues by Browning often imply "altera pars," the unheard voice that would contradict the speaker's account; A poem about argument might explicitly include "altera pars" as countervoice: "But hear altera pars: she might have had her reasons"; Political poetry employs the phrase when deliberately voicing opposition: "Before I conclude, let me present altera pars"; Contemporary poets use "altera pars" when staging internal debate, giving space to self-contradiction; A poem about fairness might insist "we must hear altera pars before judging"; Verse that values complexity over certainty invokes "altera pars" to acknowledge that truth is dialogic: "My truth is partial; altera pars would tell it differently"
Additional Notes
Altera pars embodies the principle that truth emerges through dialogue rather than monologue, that understanding requires entertaining opposing positions. Rhetorically sophisticated poets build counterargument into their verse, acknowledging perspectives that challenge their own. Browning's dramatic monologues often imply altera pars—the unheard voice that would contradict the speaker. Related to Socratic dialogue, medieval disputatio, and legal principles of fair hearing. The phrase challenges poetry's lyric tendency toward single subjectivity, suggesting poems should stage debate rather than assert conclusions. Useful for understanding dramatic verse, poems with multiple speakers, and works that value complexity over clarity. The phrase also relates to epistemic humility: recognizing one's view is partial, that altera pars would reveal different truths.
Also Known As
the other side the opposing party
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