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 O

Omar Khayyam stanza

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 quatrain with a rhyme scheme of AABA, associated with the Rubaiyat tradition

Detailed Definition
The Omar Khayyam stanza, also known as the rubaiyat quatrain, is a four-line form with an AABA rhyme scheme, popularized by Edward FitzGerald’s 19th-century translation of Persian poet Omar Khayyam’s quatrains. Traditionally meditative and fatalistic, it contemplates life’s transience, the futility of ambition, and the solace of wine or love. Its compact structure and philosophical brevity make it ideal for epigrammatic wisdom, and modern poets adapt it for contemporary existential reflection.
Example
Example in poetry:
Rubaiyat stanza: “A Book of Verses underneath the Bough, / A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread—and Thou...” (FitzGerald’s Khayyam); “The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, / Moves on...”; “Into this Universe, and Why not knowing, / Nor Whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing...”; “Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend, / Before we too into the Dust descend”; “The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon / Turns Ashes—or it prospers...”
Additional Notes
The Omar Khayyam stanza (rubaiyat) is a quatrain with AABA rhyme, often meditating on life’s transience. Popularized by FitzGerald’s translation, it blends Persian fatalism with lyrical elegance. Modern poets use it for philosophical brevity.
Also Known As
Rubai Rubaiyat
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