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

girdle

Archaic Terms
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 belt or cord worn around the waist; also a woman's undergarment; metaphorically, anything that encircles or surrounds.

Detailed Definition
"Girdle" derives from Old English "gyrdel," meaning a belt, cord, or band worn around the waist for practical or decorative purposes. In poetry, girdles carry both literal and symbolic weight—they mark social status, modesty, or magical protection. The Virgin Mary's girdle, knights' sword-belts, and maidens' ornamental girdles all appear in medieval literature with specific symbolic freight. Poets employed "girdle" literally for clothing description and metaphorically for anything encircling—seas girdle lands, walls girdle cities. The term's association with the waist made it particularly charged in romantic contexts where ungirdling suggested intimacy or vulnerability. Its use in phrases about preparation ("gird up") linked it to readiness and determination. The word efficiently serves both concrete description and metaphorical extension, making it valuable for poetry requiring both physical precision and symbolic depth in descriptions of enclosure, boundary, and containment.
Example
Example in poetry:
The maiden wore a golden girdle at her waist; "Ungirdle thy sword and rest from battle"; To girdle means to encircle or bind around; The fortress was girdled by stout walls; Knights girdle themselves with weapons of war; A jeweled girdle signified wealth and status
Additional Notes
Girdle appears throughout literature with both literal (belt, waist-band) and symbolic (anything encircling) meanings. The term carries associations with chastity (girdle as protection), martial readiness (girding for battle), and completeness (girding or encircling totally). Medieval romances feature magical girdles; biblical literature uses "gird up thy loins" metaphorically. Related to "gird" and "girt." Essential for analyzing body imagery, preparation metaphors, and symbolic encirclement. The Venus's girdle of classical mythology influenced Renaissance poetry. Useful for discussing how literature uses clothing for symbolic purposes, body-based metaphors, and the relationship between physical garments and abstract qualities like virtue or strength. Modern usage (women's undergarment) narrows earlier broader application.
Also Known As
belt band waistband sash gird
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