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

Irregular ode

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

A type of ode that does not follow a strict metrical or stanzaic pattern, often more flexible in form

Detailed Definition
An irregular ode is a free-form ode that departs from strict stanzaic and metrical rules, allowing varied line lengths and structures to suit the subject’s demands.
Example
Example in poetry:
Percy Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind” breaks Pindaric structure with personal, irregular stanzas; John Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale” uses irregular ode form with shifting meters and emotional progression; W.H. Auden’s “In Memory of W.B. Yeats” blends elegy, political critique, and irregular stanzas; Contemporary poet Tracy K. Smith’s “The United States Welcomes You” functions as irregular ode of interrogation; A.E. Stallings’ “Hapax Legomenon” adapts ode form with modern diction and irregular rhythm; Wallace Stevens’ “Ode to Common Things” uses irregular stanzas to elevate mundane objects.
Additional Notes
Irregular ode lacks the strict stanzaic patterns of Pindaric or Horatian odes. Related to Cowleyan ode. Often uses varied line lengths for emotional spontaneity—trace how form mirrors the speaker’s shifting intensity or thought.
Also Known As
Freeform ode Flexible ode Nonconformist ode Free ode Unconventional ode Broken ode
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