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



broadsword

Games
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

Broadsword is a wide-bladed cutting sword, associated with military and Highland combat.

Detailed Definition
Broadsword enters poetry as a powerful emblem of the sweeping cut and the force of the heavy blade. In literary contexts it symbolizes the martial strength of the warrior. Poets use the broadsword to explore themes of the cleaving stroke, the weight of the weapon, and the cultural image of the sword that has armed the heroes of battle and ballad.
Example
Example in poetry:
The broadsword’s wide blade and sweeping cut flash in poems of open martial force; Historical and romantic verse arms the warrior with the heavy edge of the field; “The broadsword rose and the air itself seemed divided” demonstrates decisive violence; Educational lines present the weapon as the opposite of the thrusting rapier; Poets keep the broadsword when the contest requires weight rather than point.
Additional Notes
The broadsword’s wide blade and cutting power carry martial and often Highland associations that differ sharply from the thrust-oriented rapier. Poets who choose the weapon usually wish to emphasize weight, sweep, and decisive severance. Classroom discussion can usefully contrast edge and point as two different philosophies of violence. Related swords include the backsword and the claymore. The term rewards attention to the difference between the duel and the mêlée.
Also Known As
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