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

Symmetrical Hymn 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 hymn stanza with balanced metrical and rhyme structure across its lines

Detailed Definition
Symmetrical Hymn Stanza is a devotional poetic structure characterized by balanced line lengths and consistent rhyme, such as Long Metre (8.8.8.8) or Short Metre doubled (6.6.6.6), creating harmonic stability and liturgical clarity. Common in 18th- and 19th-century hymns, this form supports doctrinal exposition and congregational singing through metrical regularity and thematic equilibrium. Each line typically completes a syntactic unit, reinforcing the stanza’s self-contained argument or prayer. The symmetry fosters meditative calm and communal unity, contrasting with asymmetrical forms that evoke tension or modernity; it remains a cornerstone of English hymnody, reflecting how formal balance can embody theological order and spiritual harmony.
Example
Example in poetry:
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation! / O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy health and salvation! / All ye who hear, now to His temple draw near; / Join ye in glad adoration! / Praise to the Lord, who o’er all things so wondrously reigneth, / Shelters thee under His wings, yea, so gently sustaineth! / Hast thou not seen how thy desires e’er have been / Granted in what He ordaineth?; O worship the King, all glorious above, / O gratefully sing His power and His love; / Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days, / Pavilioned in splendor, and girded with praise; / O tell of His might, O sing of His grace, / Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space!
Additional Notes
Symmetrical Hymn Stanza features balanced line lengths and rhyme (e.g., 8.8.8.8 or 6.6.6.6), creating harmonic stability. Common in 18th-century hymns. Students should analyze how symmetry supports doctrinal clarity or meditative calm. Compare with asymmetrical stanzas that evoke tension or modernity.
Also Known As
balanced devotional quatrain mirrored sacred verse even-measured hymnal form 88.88 meter
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