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 M

Metathesis

Sound
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

The transposition of sounds or letters in a word, either accidental or used deliberately for effect

Detailed Definition
Metathesis is the transposition of sounds or letters within a word (e.g., “aks” for “ask”), and in poetry, it may be used dialectally, archaically, or for rhythmic emphasis; while often stigmatized, poetic metathesis can authenticate voice (in regional verse) or create sonic surprise, as in Hopkins’s sprung rhythm where consonant clusters shift to heighten alliterative energy and oral texture.
Example
Example in poetry:
Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” uses metathesis: “nevermore” echoing “evermore”; Gerard Manley Hopkins’ “sprung rhythm” employs metathesis in word stress; Contemporary poet Kay Ryan uses metathesis for wit: “short lines, sharp ends”; Emily Dickinson’s “Circumference” plays with metathesis of sound and meaning; Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” uses metathesis: “Ich, ich, ich, ich” shifting German to English; A.E. Stallings uses metathesis in “Hapax Legomenon” for linguistic surprise.
Additional Notes
Transposition of sounds/letters within word (ask→aks). Type of metaplasm. Related: spoonerism, malapropism. In poetry, can be dialectal, comic, or metrical device. Tip: Distinguish deliberate artistic use from error.
Also Known As
Letter reversal Transposition Sound switch Phoneme exchange
Skip to main content