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 P

Procatalepsis

Rhetorical Devices
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

Procatalepsis is the anticipation of an objection or counterargument before it is raised, followed by a response to it. It strengthens a position by addressing resistance in advance.

Detailed Definition
Procatalepsis allows a speaker to foresee what a reader, listener, or opposing voice may object to and answer that objection before it gains force. In poetry, it can create a persuasive, self-aware voice that recognizes doubt rather than ignoring it. A poet may anticipate accusations of sentimentality, weakness, disloyalty, or false hope, then revise the terms of the debate. The device is valuable in argumentative, political, satirical, and confessional verse because it stages conflict within the poem and makes conviction appear tested, deliberate, and resilient.
Example
Example in poetry:
“You may say the road is too long, but every mile teaches the feet” raises and answers an objection; “Some will call this grief weakness, yet grief is love refusing to vanish” anticipates criticism; “You might ask why I plant trees in war, because shade is a promise to the future” addresses a likely question; “Though you claim the sea cannot hear us, we still must speak before it rises” concedes and answers resistance
Additional Notes
Procatalepsis strengthens an argument by voicing a likely objection before an audience can raise it. In a poem, the speaker might concede that grief “looks like weakness” and then revise that assumption. This device can make a voice seem self-aware and persuasive, but it should represent opposing views fairly. It is closely related to concession and refutation.
Also Known As
Anticipatory Refutation Prebuttal Anticipated Objection
Skip to main content