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.

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 P

Poulter's measure

Meter
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 metrical pattern alternating an Alexandrine (12 syllables) and a fourteener (14 syllables)

Detailed Definition
Poulter’s measure is a metrical line alternating between twelve-syllable (Alexandrine) and fourteen-syllable lines, historically used in 16th-century English verse for narrative or didactic poetry; named for its resemblance to the “poulterer’s dozen” (a baker’s dozen plus one), this irregular but rhythmic pattern allowed poets like Thomas Wyatt flexibility in phrasing while maintaining a loose structural symmetry across couplets.
Example
Example in poetry:
Poulter’s measure alternates 12- and 14-syllable lines: “The nightingale sings sweetly in the wood (12) / And all the world lies hushed in silent mood (14).”; Surrey’s translations of Virgil used this form; Rare after Renaissance, but echoed in modern experimental verse.
Additional Notes
Poulter's measure: A couplet form alternating Alexandrine (12-syllable) and fourteener (14-syllable) lines; popular in 16th-century English poetry; named for its “extra” syllables like a poulterer’s dozen.
Also Known As
Twelve-and-fourteener Alternating couplet Short-long pair Poulter's couplet
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