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 I

Illustrated verse

Form
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

Poetry integrated with visual art, where illustrations complement, interpret, or expand the verbal text.

Detailed Definition
Poetry accompanied by, integrated with, or designed to appear alongside visual images, illustrations, or decorative elements. Illustrated verse includes medieval illuminated manuscripts, Blake's prophetic books combining text and images, picture books pairing poems with artwork, and contemporary illustrated collections. The relationship between text and image may be complementary, interpretive, decorative, or integral. Consider how visual elements affect reading and whether they illustrate, extend, or transform verbal meaning.
Example
Example in poetry:
William Blake’s “Songs of Innocence and Experience” pairs poems with engraved illustrations; Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” was originally illustrated to enhance moral allegory; Contemporary poet Bianca Stone collaborates with visual artists in “Poetry Comics”; M. NourbeSe Philip’s “Zong!” uses typographical layout as illustration; William Carlos Williams’ “The Great Figure” inspired Charles Demuth’s painting “I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold”; Claudia Rankine’s “Citizen” integrates visual art by John Lucas to frame racial encounters.
Additional Notes
Long tradition from medieval illuminated manuscripts through Blake to modern picture books. Consider relationship between visual and verbal elements.
Also Known As
Picture poetry Image-accompanied verse Visual poetry Illuminated poem Emblem book poetry Illuminated verse painted sonnet
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