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

Contour

Musical 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

Contour refers to the overall shape or direction of a melody as it rises and falls.

Detailed Definition
Poets employ contour to describe the rising and falling pattern of a poem’s rhythm, pitch, or emotional arc across lines or stanzas. In literature, it captures the melodic profile of verse—how tension builds and releases through stress patterns or imagery. This term from music theory illuminates poetry’s undulating structure, helping writers sculpt dynamic journeys that mirror human experience. Contour’s significance lies in revealing verse as shaped sound, where peaks and valleys create drama or resolution. It encourages attention to auditory architecture, enriching poetry with a sense of movement and musicality that engages readers on both intellectual and sensory levels.
Example
Example in poetry:
The emotional contour of a poem rises and falls like a melody: "the contour of her voice arched high in hope then dipped into quiet resolve."; Students map a poem's contour by graphing stress or intensity to visualize shape.; In free verse, contour guides the undulating arc of ideas across stanzas.; Educational: rewrite a flat passage with varied contour for dynamic interest, mimicking melodic lines.; Contour helps poets sculpt tension and release, as in sonnet volta's peak and fall.; Critics describe poetic rhythm through its melodic contour of peaks and valleys.
Additional Notes
Contour maps the rising and falling shape of a poem's rhythm, pitch emphasis, or emotional arc, much like a melody's profile; poets sculpt it through stress patterns, line length variation, and imagery peaks/valleys. Tip: graph a draft's intensity to visualize and refine undulation for dynamic interest. Related to phrase and cadence. Educational exercises include rewriting flat text with varied contour to teach engagement. Professors use it for prosody analysis, linking poetic shape to musical lines. Contour reveals verse as sculpted sound, training students to design journeys that mirror human experience through deliberate rises, falls, and resolutions rather than monotonous delivery.
Other Meanings of “Contour”
Also Known As
Melodic contour Melody shape
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