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 C

Complex tetrameter

Meter
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 tetrameter line combining multiple types of metrical feet (e.g., iambs, trochees, anapests) to create rhythmic diversity and emphasis.

Detailed Definition
A four-foot line incorporating mixed metrical patterns or complex substitutions rather than simple uniform meter. Common in ballads, hymns, and popular song forms, complex tetrameter balances accessibility with sophistication through rhythmic variation. The four-foot length provides good equilibrium between brevity and development, allowing clear narrative progression while the metrical complexity adds artistic interest and variety.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death,” tetrameter alternates with trimeter but some stanzas sustain complex tetrameter through slant rhyme; In W.B. Yeats’ “The Wild Swans at Coole,” tetrameter varies with spondaic emphasis for emotional depth; In Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods,” tetrameter uses iambic and anapestic mix for rural cadence; In Sylvia Plath’s “Ariel,” tetrameter accelerates into psychic urgency; In Lucille Clifton’s “homage to my hips,” tetrameter pulses with bodily assertion.
Additional Notes
Common in ballads, hymns, and popular song forms. The four-foot line provides good balance between brevity and development. Allows for clear narrative progression.
Also Known As
Varied tetrameter Mixed four-foot Compound tetrameter Epitritic tetrameter
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