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 T

Truncation

Technique
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

Omitting a final unstressed syllable to create a masculine ending

Detailed Definition
Truncation shortens a metrical line by dropping its last unstressed syllable, converting a feminine ending to a stronger, abrupt masculine close. This technique sharpens emphasis, alters pace, and is common in dramatic verse or when poets seek heightened intensity or finality in a line’s delivery.
Example
Example in poetry:
Truncation removes a final unstressed syllable, turning iambic pentameter into catalectic tetrameter: “Tyger Tyger, burning bright” (Blake); Another: “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may” (Herrick)—last foot truncated; In ballads: “The king stood on his castle wall” (last syllable omitted for rhythmic punch); Truncation creates emphasis or rhythmic variation; Also seen in trochaic tetrameter catalectic: “Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater.”
Additional Notes
Truncation (catalexis) removes the final unstressed syllable of a metrical line, creating a blunt, emphatic close; common in trochaic meter (“Tyger Tyger, burning bright”) or ballad quatrains; students should recognize it by counting syllables against expected meter; enhances rhythmic drive and oral punch; overuse can feel choppy; often paired with masculine rhyme; useful in songs, chants, or dramatic monologues where finality is desired; distinguish from acephalous lines (missing initial syllable).
Also Known As
Catalexis Catalectic Line Truncated Meter Clipping
Skip to main content