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 C

compass

Nautical
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

An instrument with a magnetized needle that points north, used for navigation.

Detailed Definition
The compass is poetry’s quintessential symbol of direction, purpose, and the human need for orientation in a trackless world. Its steady needle, forever seeking the pole, becomes an emblem of constancy, conscience, and unwavering faith. Poets have used it to discuss moral bearings, the pull of home, and the ability to find truth amid confusion. The compass also carries the romance of exploration, transforming the unknown into a charted path. Its delicate balance on a gimbal suggests the fragile equilibrium required for spiritual navigation, and its deviation in storms mirrors the mind's own perturbations.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Touch but with gentlest finger the crystal that circles the mariner’s guide … the needle points North” (Edith Matilda Thomas, The Compass).; “The mariner’s compass is grog. Let but grog take its charge of the helm” (from a sea song).; “With a compass old and stars so bright, I set my course in the fading light” (Sailing Around the World).; The compass in poetry is the quintessential symbol of direction, purpose, and moral bearings.; Poets use the compass to discuss constancy, conscience, and the ability to find truth amid confusion.; The compass’s delicate balance on a gimbal suggests the fragile equilibrium required for spiritual navigation.
Additional Notes
The compass is the definitive symbol of guidance, direction, and unwavering purpose in nautical poetry, representing the human need for moral and spiritual bearings in a trackless world. Its needle, always seeking north, is an emblem of constancy, conscience, and the ability to find one's way through confusion. Poets have used the compass to discuss the stability of love, the pull of home, and the spiritual "true north" that orients one's life. The delicate balance of its needle on its pivot suggests the fragile equilibrium required for navigation and for maintaining one's principles. The compass also embodies the romance of exploration, transforming the unknown into a course. Its variation, or deviation from true north, can be a metaphor for moral drift or self-deception.
Other Meanings of “compass”
Also Known As
Mariner's compass magnetic compass steering compass
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