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

Cutlass

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 cutlass is a short, curved sword or sabre, historically used by sailors and soldiers, particularly in naval warfare.

Detailed Definition
The cutlass is a type of sword characterized by its broad blade and a curved edge, designed for close combat. It was commonly used by sailors in the 17th to 19th centuries, valued for its effectiveness in boarding actions and hand-to-hand fighting. In T. S. Eliot's poem "Gerontion," the mention of "heaving a cutlass" evokes imagery of battle and struggle, reflecting the speaker's sense of disconnection from youthful vigor and historical conflict. This term encapsulates themes of memory, loss, and the remnants of a warrior's life.
Example
Example in poetry:
In T. S. Eliot's "Gerontion," the line "Nor knee deep in the salt marsh, heaving a cutlass" illustrates the speaker's reminiscence of a life once filled with action and conflict. The cutlass symbolizes both the physicality of battle and the emotional weight of past experiences, contrasting the speaker's current state of passivity and decay.
Additional Notes
Historically, the cutlass was favored by pirates and naval officers for its versatility and ease of use in tight spaces. It is often associated with maritime culture and the romanticized image of seafaring adventures. Related terms include "sabre" and "machete," which also refer to curved blades but differ in design and purpose. When discussing cutlasses in literature, it's essential to consider their symbolic implications, such as themes of conflict, survival, and the passage of time. The word "cutlass" originates from the Middle French term "coutelas," which means a knife or sword.
Also Known As
Saber Hanger Short Sword Naval Sword Broadsword (loosely) Blade Sabre Sword
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