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

Modified zeugma

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 zeugma in which a single word governs two or more others with altered or adapted meanings

Detailed Definition
Modified zeugma is a rhetorical device in which a single word—usually a verb or adjective—governs two or more other words with altered or adapted meanings, creating wit, pathos, or semantic tension, as in “He lost his coat and his temper” or “She opened the door and her heart.” Unlike strict zeugma (which uses one meaning for multiple objects), modified zeugma allows the governing word to shift sense slightly to accommodate each object, enhancing expressiveness. Common in satire, epigrams, and dramatic monologue, it reveals hidden connections between disparate ideas. Students should ensure both usages feel plausible and that the modification serves thematic or emotional purpose rather than mere cleverness.
Example
Example in poetry:
He lost his coat and his temper; / She opened the door and her heart; / They broke the law and the silence; / He took his hat and his leave; She dropped the glass and the subject; / He caught the ball and the flu
Additional Notes
Modified zeugma joins one word to two others with different meanings (“He lost his coat and his temper”). It creates wit or pathos through semantic tension. Students should ensure both connections feel plausible. Overuse can feel gimmicky; best in satirical or ironic contexts. Related to syllepsis (grammatical mismatch).
Also Known As
altered syntactic yoking adjusted grammatical linkage reworked conjunctional phrase Zeugma variation zeugma-variant
Skip to main content