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.

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 D

didactic alphabet poem

Form
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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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

An instructional poem using the alphabet to convey knowledge, values, or lessons

Detailed Definition
A didactic alphabet poem uses the alphabetical sequence as a framework for moral, religious, or practical instruction, assigning a lesson or virtue to each letter; historically common in medieval and early modern literature (e.g., “The ABC of Aristotle”), it merges pedagogy with poetic form, aiming to shape character or convey cultural values through memorable, structured verse.
Example
Example in poetry:
didactic alphabet poem: "A: Always tell the truth, my child; / B: Be kind, both meek and mild; / C: Choose courage when you’re scared..."; "D: Don’t steal, even if you’re poor; / E: Every heart deserves much more..."; Continues through Z with moral lessons; "X: eXcuses won’t mend what you’ve broken; / Y: Yield to kindness, not to token; / Z: Zeal for good will light your way"; Teaches both letters and ethics; Modeled on 18th-century moral primers.
Additional Notes
A didactic alphabet poem teaches moral or religious lessons via the alphabet; students should analyze historical examples (e.g., New England Primer) and modern subversions—this form reveals how cultural values are transmitted through seemingly neutral structures; related to Abecedarium (12053) and alphabetic primer (12121).
Also Known As
alphabet moral poem lettered lesson verse abecedarian didactic instructional ABC poem Abecedary poem
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