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 U

upbeat

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

Unstressed syllable or syllables at the beginning of a line before the first stress

Detailed Definition
upbeat: The unstressed syllable or syllables beginning a metrical line or foot, particularly in iambic meter where line starts with unstressed syllable before first stressed beat. Upbeat creates rising rhythm and forward momentum as line moves toward stress. The term borrowed from music emphasizes poetry's rhythmic nature and connection to musical patterns. Understanding upbeat helps readers perceive metrical structure and rhythmic movement, recognizing how lines build toward stress through preliminary unstressed syllables that create anticipation and momentum.
Example
Example in poetry:
In anapestic meter, the upbeat is the first two unstressed syllables: “And the silken, sad” in Poe’s “The Raven”; In iambic meter, the upbeat is the unstressed syllable before the downbeat: “To be”; In music-influenced poetry like blues verse, the upbeat anticipates the strong beat; In “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” Tennyson uses upbeat in dactylic rhythm: “Cannon to right of them”; Contemporary poet Terrance Hayes uses upbeat in jazz-inflected lines to create syncopation.
Additional Notes
Upbeat consists of unstressed syllable(s) beginning a line or phrase before the first stress. This anacrusis provides rhythmic lead-in, creating natural flow into the metrical pattern.
Also Known As
Anacrusis Pick-up beat Initial upbeat Arsis Anacrouse
Skip to main content