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

Brigade

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 brigade is a military formation typically composed of several battalions, forming a significant tactical unit.

Detailed Definition
The brigade appears in poetry as an emblem of organized collective sacrifice, most famously in Alfred, Lord Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade," which commemorates a doomed cavalry charge during the Crimean War. The term captures both the disciplined grandeur of massed military formations and the tragic waste of life when such units are sacrificed through flawed strategy, making it a lasting symbol of heroism entangled with futility.
Example
Example in poetry:
Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade" commemorates the doomed cavalry brigade sacrificed through flawed strategy; A poem might describe a brigade advancing in disciplined ranks before being decimated by enemy fire; Poets use "brigade" to explore themes of collective sacrifice and organizational tragedy in warfare; A verse could depict the pride felt within a brigade contrasted against its devastating losses; The term often appears in elegies naming specific brigades to honor their historical sacrifice; A poem might use "brigade" to critique the abstraction of soldiers into numbered military units.
Additional Notes
A brigade is a military formation typically composed of several battalions, forming a significant tactical unit. Historically, a brigade was commanded by a brigadier general and could include infantry, artillery, cavalry, and support elements. In modern armies, brigades have become the principal deployable combined arms unit, capable of sustained independent operations. A brigade is larger than a regiment but smaller than a division, striking a balance between mass and mobility. In military poetry, the brigade often represents the level at which soldiers become more than individuals—a formation with its own identity and pride. The term also appears in historical contexts, such as the "Light Brigade" of Crimean War fame, immortalized in Tennyson's poem. Related terms include battalion, division, and task force.
Also Known As
Formation Combat Team Brigade Group Infantry Brigade Armored Brigade Regimental-sized Unit Regiment
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