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 A

anvil

Tools
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

An anvil is a heavy metal block on which heated or cold metal is hammered into shape.

Detailed Definition
An anvil is the solid working surface of a smithy, usually made of iron or steel and shaped with a flat face, horn, and holes for specialised tools. Poets use it to summon the heat, noise, and muscular rhythm of the forge, making it a natural emblem of labour, endurance, and creation under pressure. The ringing of hammer on anvil may become musical, martial, or ominous, while the unyielding block can represent fate, resistance, or the hard conditions against which identity is formed.
Example
Example in poetry:
In William Blake's The Tyger, the anvil belongs to imagery of fearful creation and supernatural craftsmanship; The blacksmith's anvil rang through the valley like an iron bell; A poet may present the anvil as a symbol of endurance because it withstands repeated blows; Her character was forged upon the anvil of hardship.
Additional Notes
An anvil is both a functional smithing surface and a powerful literary symbol. Its resistance to repeated hammer blows makes it suitable for poems about endurance, hardship, discipline, or character formed under pressure. The ringing sound of hammer on anvil can provide strong auditory imagery and may resemble bells, weapons, machinery, or music. Students should distinguish the anvil from the forge, which supplies heat, and from the hammer, which delivers the blow. Related concepts include blacksmithing, tempering, metalwork, creation, labour, and transformation.
Other Meanings of “anvil”
Also Known As
smith's anvil blacksmith's anvil
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