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 B

Bastion

Military
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 bastion is a projecting fortified structure, part of a larger fortification, designed to defend against assault.

Detailed Definition
The bastion represents fortified resilience and calculated defense, its projecting design allowing defenders to repel attackers from multiple angles. Poets use the bastion both literally, in depictions of historical sieges and fortresses, and metaphorically, to describe steadfast resistance or protection in broader contexts, such as a bastion of faith or liberty, extending the term's martial origins into symbolic language describing unwavering strength.
Example
Example in poetry:
A poem describing a medieval siege might depict soldiers defending a bastion against relentless waves of attackers; Poets use "bastion" metaphorically to describe a bastion of hope or faith amid despair; A verse might contrast the crumbling stone of an ancient bastion with the fleeting nature of empire; Historical poetry often uses bastions to evoke the strategic ingenuity of fortress design; A poem could personify a bastion as a silent witness to centuries of conflict; The word appears in odes to resilience, describing a nation as an unyielding bastion.
Additional Notes
A bastion is a projecting fortified structure, part of a larger fortification, designed to defend against assault. Bastions revolutionized military architecture in the sixteenth century, replacing medieval towers with angled, gunpowder-resistant formations that allowed defenders to cover all approaches with crossfire. The classic star fort, with its multiple bastions, became the dominant fortification design for centuries. In poetry and political rhetoric, bastion has become a metaphor for any stronghold or institution that protects values or ideas—a "bastion of freedom" or "bastion of tradition." The term carries connotations of endurance, security, and resolute defense. Related concepts include fortress, citadel, and redoubt. In military history, the fall of a bastion often signals the collapse of an entire defensive system, making it a powerful symbol of vulnerability despite apparent strength.
Also Known As
Stronghold Fortress Bulwark Citadel Defense Rampart
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