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 G

General

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 general is a senior military officer who commands large forces and directs overall military strategy.

Explore this topic in depth (1)

War Poetry — War poetry is not a single style or political position. This guide explores how poets respond to conflict through public ceremony, private testimony, grief, protest, formal experiment and sound.

Detailed Definition
The general figure in poetry often embodies the abstraction of strategic power, a distant authority whose decisions shape the fates of thousands of soldiers without directly sharing their battlefield suffering. Poets frequently use generals to critique the disconnect between high command and frontline experience, portraying these figures as architects of glory or catastrophe whose calculations transform individual human lives into strategic variables within larger campaigns of conquest or defense.
Example
Example in poetry:
A poem might portray a general directing strategy from a safe distance while soldiers face direct danger; Poets use "general" to critique the disconnect between high command and frontline suffering; A verse could contrast the general's calculated abstraction with the visceral reality experienced by troops; The term appears in poetry examining how strategic decisions transform human lives into variables; A poem might depict a general haunted privately by the cost of a victorious campaign; Historical war poetry sometimes portrays generals as architects of both glory and catastrophe.
Additional Notes
A general is a senior military officer who commands large forces and directs overall military strategy. Generals hold the highest ranks, from brigadier general to general of the army. They are responsible for planning campaigns, allocating resources, and making life-and-death decisions. In poetry, the general is often portrayed as the distant, calculating figure who sends others to fight. The general's headquarters is the place where strategy is divorced from the reality of combat. Related terms include commander, marshal, and field marshal. The general's reputation is built on victories and studied in military academies. War literature explores the general's isolation, the burden of command, and the moral compromises of leadership.
Also Known As
Commander Chief Flag Officer General Officer Commanding Officer
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