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 O

oriflamme

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

An oriflamme is a sacred or battle flag, especially the historic red banner of medieval French kings; in poetry, it can mean any bright, flame-like banner or banner-shaped sight.

Detailed Definition
Originally, the Oriflamme was the royal war banner associated with the Abbey of Saint-Denis and carried by French kings in battle. Its name and brilliant appearance made it a symbol of courage, conflict, and martial authority. Poets often use oriflamme figuratively to describe something vividly red, fluttering, or flame-shaped, even when no literal flag is present.
Example
Example in poetry:
In John Townsend Trowbridge’s “Cuba,” the speaker writes, “And the shy flamingo rises like a winged oriflamme.” Here, oriflamme is used figuratively: the flamingo’s red or pink wings, lifting and spreading in flight, resemble a bright battle banner waving in the air. The comparison gives the bird a striking, heroic visual presence.
Additional Notes
The historical Oriflamme was connected with Saint-Denis, the patron saint of France, and was used by French monarchs during the Middle Ages. The word comes from the Latin aurea flamma, meaning “golden flame,” though the famous French banner is commonly described as red or crimson. In literary use, oriflamme often suggests more than a flag: it may evoke flame, splendor, battle, patriotism, or a vivid flash of color. Related terms include standard, banner, ensign, and pennon. Unlike these general flag terms, oriflamme carries strong historical and poetic associations.
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