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 S

Story setup

Structure
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

Foundational lines of a narrative poem that establish setting and framework

Detailed Definition
Story setup in narrative poetry refers to the expository foundation that establishes setting, character, conflict, and tone early in the poem, providing the necessary context for subsequent dramatic or lyrical development; unlike prose fiction, poetic story setup must achieve this efficiently through image, voice, or allusion rather than extended description, as in the opening of Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” where a single encounter launches a supernatural tale, demonstrating how economy and evocative detail can swiftly immerse the reader in a poetic world while preserving lyrical intensity.
Example
Example in poetry:
In “The Odyssey,” “Sing, O Muse, of the man of twists and turns” is story setup; In “Paradise Lost,” “Of Man’s first disobedience” sets up theological stakes; Contemporary poet: “The boys are jumping off the roof again” as story setup in “summer, somewhere”; Student example: “She packed one suitcase” as story setup; Another: “The sirens started at 3 a.m.” as story setup.
Additional Notes
Story setup establishes character, setting, or conflict in narrative poetry’s opening. Related to opening flourish. Balance exposition with intrigue—provide just enough to orient, then propel the reader forward.
Also Known As
Initial setup Narrative introduction Context framing Story prologue Exposition
Skip to main content