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 H

halberd

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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

Halberd is a combined spear and axe weapon on a long shaft, used by infantry in the late medieval and Renaissance periods.

Detailed Definition
Halberd appears in poetry as a formidable emblem of the versatile polearm and the guard of the gate. In historical literature it represents the disciplined infantry. Poets draw on the halberd to illustrate themes of the combined thrust and cut, the length of the shaft, and the ceremonial and practical weapon that has stood in the poetry of the watch and the field.
Example
Example in poetry:
The halberd’s combined point and edge flash in poems of the watch and the gate; Historical verse arms the guard with the versatile polearm of the Renaissance; “The halberd lowered and the passage closed” illustrates disciplined force; Educational examples present the weapon as the marriage of spear and axe; Poets use the halberd when the defender must both thrust and cut from a distance.
Additional Notes
The halberd’s combined spear point and axe blade made it the versatile weapon of the infantry guard and the ceremonial watch. Poets who choose it often wish to emphasize both reach and cutting power in a single shaft. Classroom discussion can usefully contrast the halberd with the pure pike or the pure axe. Related pole-arms include the bill and the voulge. The image is effective when the defender must be able both to keep distance and to deliver a finishing blow.
Other Meanings of “halberd”
Also Known As
Polearm Battle Axe Hybrid Weapon Medieval Halberd
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