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

Antiphonal verse

Form
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 poetic structure featuring alternating voices or speakers in a call-and-response pattern, often used in liturgical or communal contexts.

Detailed Definition
Antiphonal verse employs two alternating voices or groups of lines that respond to each other throughout the poem, creating a systematic call-and-response structure. This technique can represent dialogue, competing perspectives, or complementary voices that together form complete meaning. Antiphonal verse emphasizes relationship and interaction rather than single-voice utterance, building significance through the interplay between alternating sections. The form creates natural dramatic tension while providing clear structural organization through systematic alternation.
Example
Example in poetry:
Antiphonal verse alternates voices or choirs: Psalm 136’s call-and-response (“Give thanks to the Lord… for his steadfast love endures forever”); African American spirituals like “Wade in the Water” use leader-chorus structure; T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” features fragmented voices in dialogue; contemporary slam poetry often uses group antiphony; medieval liturgical drama employed antiphonal chanting between clerics and congregation.
Additional Notes
Antiphonal verse is poetry structured in alternating sections designed to be spoken, sung, or read by two different voices or choruses in response to each other (related to dramatic dialogue or flyting).
Also Known As
Responsive verse Antiphonal rhyme Choral poetry Alternating stanzas Answering verse Call-and-response responsive form
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