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

halyard

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

A rope or tackle used for hoisting or lowering a sail, yard, or flag.

Detailed Definition
The halyard is the lifting line, the vertical power that raises canvas to catch the wind. In poetry, it symbolizes aspiration, the effort to elevate one's spirit or one's work to a higher plane. The act of hauling on the halyard is a physical prayer, a straining upward that mirrors human striving for the transcendent. Poets contrast the heavy drag of the sail with the sudden lightness of its ascent, using it to discuss the transformation of burden into flight. Its defeat—a snapped halyard dropping sail—is a powerful image for failed ambition or the collapse of hope.
Example
Example in poetry:
The halyard in poetry symbolizes aspiration, the effort to elevate one’s spirit or one’s work to a higher plane.; The act of hauling on the halyard is a physical prayer, a straining upward that mirrors human striving.; Poets contrast the heavy drag of the sail with the sudden lightness of its ascent.; A snapped halyard dropping sail is a powerful image for failed ambition or the collapse of hope.; The halyard is the lifting line, the vertical power that raises canvas to catch the wind.; Its defeat represents the moment when aspiration falls back to earth.
Additional Notes
The halyard is the rope used to hoist a sail, yard, or flag, and in poetry it is a powerful symbol of aspiration, the effort to elevate one's work, spirit, or ideals. The physical act of hauling on the halyard, straining and pulling to lift the heavy canvas, becomes a metaphor for human striving and the upward reach of the soul. Poets contrast the heavy, wet drag of the sail with the sudden lightness of its ascent to discuss the transformation of burden into flight. A snapped halyard, dropping sail and ambition back to the deck, is a vivid image for failure, the collapse of hope, or the moment when aspirations are tragically grounded.
Also Known As
Halyard rope peak halyard throat halyard
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