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

Bayonet

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 bayonet is a blade attachment fixed to the muzzle of a rifle, used for close-quarters combat.

Detailed Definition
The bayonet represents the visceral, hand-to-hand violence of warfare that persisted even into the industrial age of long-range weaponry. Its intimate, piercing nature makes it a potent poetic symbol for the raw brutality underlying the abstractions of military strategy. Wilfred Owen and other war poets used bayonet imagery to strip away romantic notions of combat, confronting readers with the immediate, physical horror of soldiers killing at close range.
Example
Example in poetry:
Wilfred Owen's poetry uses bayonet imagery to strip away romantic notions of hand-to-hand combat; A poem might describe the cold gleam of a bayonet fixed before a charge, heightening dread; Poets use "bayonet" to evoke the visceral intimacy of close combat, distinct from distant artillery; A verse could depict a soldier's hesitation before using a bayonet against another human being; The word appears in poetry examining the psychological toll of killing at close range; A poem might contrast bayonet drill practiced in training with its brutal reality in battle.
Additional Notes
A bayonet is a blade attachment fixed to the muzzle of a rifle, used for close-quarters combat. The bayonet evolved from the plug bayonet of the seventeenth century to the socket bayonet that allowed simultaneous firing and stabbing. The bayonet charge, with its psychological impact of cold steel, has been a dramatic tactic even in modern warfare. In poetry, the bayonet often represents the primal, brutal intimacy of combat—the moment when technology gives way to hand-to-hand violence. The phrase "cold steel" evokes the chilling reality of bayonet combat. Bayonets also carry symbolic weight as emblems of infantry identity and aggression. While modern warfare has reduced the bayonet's tactical importance, it remains a ceremonial and symbolic weapon. Related terms include rifle, thrust, and fixed bayonets—the command that signals imminent assault.
Also Known As
Blade Knife Socket Bayonet Sword Bayonet Pike (historical) Cold Steel Dagger
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