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 R

rapier

Games
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

Rapier is a long, slender sword used for thrusting, associated with Renaissance fencing and civilian combat.

Detailed Definition
Rapier appears in poetry as an elegant emblem of the pointed wit and the deadly thrust of the gentleman. In early modern literature it represents the weapon of the court and the street. Poets draw on the rapier to illustrate themes of the quick point, the defense of reputation, and the cultural shift from the broadsword to the refined blade of the age of honor.
Example
Example in poetry:
The rapier’s slender thrust and deadly point appear in poems of elegant and personal combat; Renaissance and later verse place the weapon at the heart of the duel of honor; “The rapier spoke and the argument was ended in a single syllable of steel” illustrates refined finality; Educational examples present the sword as the civilian and intellectual counterpart to the broadsword; Poets return to the rapier whenever the conflict must be both graceful and lethal.
Additional Notes
The rapier’s slender thrust and deadly point made it the preferred weapon of the Renaissance civilian and the formal duel. Poets who choose it often wish to emphasize elegance, speed, and the finality of the single thrust. Classroom discussion can usefully contrast the rapier with the cutting broadsword or the practical backsword. Related swords include the smallsword and the general language of the thrusting blade. The image remains powerful because the entire argument can be ended in a single, almost invisible motion.
Also Known As
Sword
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