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 E

Elegiac four-measure

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 metrical line of four feet traditionally used in elegiac or mournful verse, often combining dactylic and trochaic rhythms.

Detailed Definition
Elegiac or mourning poetry composed in four-foot metrical lines, combining tetrameter's quicker, more accessible rhythm with the elegy's function of lamenting loss. The four-measure line creates a more song-like, ballad quality than pentameter while maintaining appropriate solemnity, making it common in folk elegiac traditions and hymn-style laments where the briefer line allows clear, direct expression of grief in forms suitable for communal recitation or singing.
Example
Example in poetry:
Greek elegiac couplets use elegiac four-measure (hexameter + pentameter); modern example: A.E. Stallings’ “Elegy for a Suicide” adapts this structure; elegiac four-measure balances narrative and reflection; it’s foundational to Western elegy; this form suits mourning and meditation; it contrasts with heroic hexameter.
Additional Notes
Four-foot lines create quicker pace than pentameter. Common in ballad meter elegies and hymn-style laments. More accessible and song-like than longer measures.
Also Known As
Elegiac tetrameter Four-foot mourning line Tetrameter lament Four-measure dirge
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