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 E

extra-short line

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 shorter than its expected length, often with catalexis

Detailed Definition
An extra-short line is a deliberate metrical or visual truncation within a stanza or poem, where one line contains significantly fewer syllables or stresses than surrounding lines; this technique creates rhythmic disruption, draws attention to specific words or images, or signals emotional fragmentation, and is frequently employed in modern and contemporary poetry to convey vulnerability, urgency, or abrupt shifts in consciousness.
Example
Example in poetry:
Extra-short line: a single word or syllable line for emphasis—“Stop.”; In Williams’ “The Red Wheelbarrow,” “so much depends / upon” uses brevity to heighten focus; A poem where “No.” stands alone after pages of justification; Contemporary free verse uses micro-lines to control pace and tension; Short lines create visual and rhythmic surprise.
Additional Notes
An extra-short line is a line of verse significantly shorter than the surrounding lines in a poem or stanza, often containing fewer feet or syllables than expected; this abrupt brevity is typically used for dramatic effect, emphasis, concluding an idea, or marking a sudden shift in tone or perspective.
Also Known As
Micro-line Shortest verse Fragment line Extra-brief unit Brachycatalectic line
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