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.

After the death of my mother, 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.

My wife and I are simplifying our days. The server, the monitoring, and the residual obligations that come with keeping a site alive no longer fit the quieter life we want.

From 4 November 2026 I will not be adding new poems or musical poems to the 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.

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 M

Make headway

Idiomatic Phrase
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

Make headway means to make progress or advance despite obstacles; in narrative arcs, it signifies perseverance, incremental success, or forward momentum, often against resistance or challenging conditions.

Detailed Definition
Make headway means to make progress, especially against resistance, difficulty, delay, or opposing force. In poetry, the idiom has nautical roots, suggesting a vessel moving forward through water. It can describe emotional healing, political reform, education, a journey, a relationship, or the composition of a poem. The phrase is useful because progress may be slow yet real. A poet can pair it with currents, winds, storms, and tides to show effort working against circumstances that push back.
Example
Example in poetry:
A voyage poem might say the ship makes headway when the wind returns at dawn; In a reform poem, justice makes headway little by little through stubborn hearts; The phrase make headway means to progress; A poet can use it for journeys, arguments, healing, or social change.
Additional Notes
Make headway means make progress, originally with nautical associations of a vessel moving forward through water. In poetry, it can describe learning, recovery, reform, courtship, argument, or spiritual development. The phrase implies resistance, as though progress must be made against current, wind, or inertia. Students may pair it with waves, tides, oars, harbours, and difficult journeys where forward motion is slow but meaningful.
Also Known As
progress
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