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

ironic praise

Device
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 rhetorical strategy where praise is used ironically to underscore flaws, failures, or hypocrisy.

Detailed Definition
Ironic praise employs laudatory language to actually criticize, mock, or undermine its ostensible subject through contextual cues that signal insincerity. This rhetorical strategy appears to compliment while actually condemning, relying on reader recognition of the gap between literal statement and implied meaning.
Example
Example in poetry:
Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” uses ironic praise to critique British policy; Alexander Pope’s “Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot” employs ironic praise for false friends; Contemporary poet Tracy K. Smith’s “The United States Welcomes You” uses ironic praise: “Open your mouths”; W.H. Auden’s “The Unknown Citizen” uses ironic praise to expose dehumanization; Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” uses ironic praise: “I used to pray to recover you”; Ocean Vuong’s “Aubade with Burning City” uses ironic praise by setting war elegy to disco song.
Additional Notes
Language that appears complimentary on the surface but contains underlying mockery or sarcasm, praising while actually criticizing.
Also Known As
Mock praise Satirical compliment Backhanded praise Ironic flattery Diasyrm mock compliment
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