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

Blockade

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 blockade is a military strategy of sealing off a region or port to prevent the movement of supplies, people, or reinforcements.

Detailed Definition
The blockade represents a slow, strangulating form of warfare, inflicting suffering through deprivation rather than direct combat. Poets have used blockades to explore themes of starvation, isolation, and the quiet suffering endured by civilian populations caught within besieged territories. Unlike the sudden violence of battle, the blockade's poetic power lies in its patient cruelty, drawing out hardship over extended periods of enforced scarcity.
Example
Example in poetry:
A poem might depict a besieged city slowly starving under a naval blockade, its citizens waiting in vain for supplies; Poets use "blockade" to explore themes of patient cruelty and prolonged suffering rather than instant violence; A verse could contrast the silent, invisible ships enforcing a blockade with the visible desperation onshore; Historical poetry sometimes uses blockade imagery to critique warfare's impact on civilian populations; A poem might extend "blockade" metaphorically to describe emotional isolation or the withholding of resources; The term appears in odes to endurance, describing communities surviving despite prolonged deprivation.
Additional Notes
A blockade is a military strategy of sealing off a region or port to prevent the movement of supplies, people, or reinforcements. Blockades can be naval, land-based, or aerial, designed to starve the enemy into submission or isolate them from external support. Historical examples include the British naval blockade of Germany in World War I and the Union blockade of the Confederacy during the American Civil War. Blockades are acts of war, often involving significant humanitarian consequences as civilian populations suffer shortages. In poetry, the blockade represents the slow, grinding pressure of siege, the invisible cage that confines and destroys. Related terms include siege, investment, and interdiction. A blockade runner is a vessel that attempts to evade the blockade, adding a element of daring and adventure to the strategic calculus.
Also Known As
Siege Cordon Embargo Encirclement Naval Blockade Barricade Interdict
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