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

Antilabe

Device
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 rhetorical device where a single verse line is split between two or more speakers in dramatic poetry

Detailed Definition
Antilabe is a dramatic technique in verse drama where a single metrical line is divided between two or more characters, with each speaking a portion of the line in rapid succession. This device creates a sense of urgency, tension, or heated dialogue, as the characters effectively share or interrupt each other's speech within the confines of a single poetic line. It is a hallmark of classical Greek tragedy and was frequently employed by Renaissance playwrights like Shakespeare to heighten dramatic intensity and mimic the natural flow of passionate or contentious conversation. The term comes from the Greek word meaning "to take up" or "to receive in turn," reflecting the way speakers take up the line from one another.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth: “MACBETH: ‘If it were done...’ / LADY MACBETH: ‘...when ’tis done, then ’twere well...’” – shared line across speakers; Antilabe in Greek tragedy: “CHORUS: ‘O gods!’ / AGAMEMNON: ‘...if you hear us!’”; Modern example: “POET: ‘I can’t breathe—’ / AUDIENCE: ‘—in this silence.’”; In “Romeo and Juliet,” rapid antilabe heightens tension: “ROMEO: ‘O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?’ / JULIET: ‘What satisfaction canst thou have tonight?’”; Contemporary slam poetry uses antilabe for call-and-response dynamics.
Additional Notes
Greek term for shared dialogue lines in drama/verse. One line split between speakers. Common in Greek tragedy. Study tip: Watch for dramatic tension created by interrupted or completed thoughts.
Other Meanings of “Antilabe”
Also Known As
line-sharing shared line
Skip to main content