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 S

Sortie

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

A sortie is a sudden military attack launched from a defended or besieged position, or a single mission by an aircraft.

Detailed Definition
The sortie captures warfare's brief, decisive bursts of offensive action, whether a ground force breaking out from a besieged position or a single aerial mission into contested airspace. Poets use the sortie to evoke themes of calculated risk and momentary courage, the sortie's defined, temporary nature offering a contained narrative arc within larger campaigns, a single dangerous excursion whose outcome carries significance beyond its brief duration.
Example
Example in poetry:
A poem might describe a besieged garrison launching a desperate sortie to break the encircling siege; Poets use "sortie" to capture warfare's brief, decisive bursts of calculated risk and courage; A verse could contrast the sortie's contained, temporary action with the larger campaign surrounding it; The term appears in poetry documenting single dangerous missions carrying outsized significance; A poem might describe a pilot's solitary sortie into contested skies, uncertain of return; Historical war poetry sometimes uses sorties to offer a compact narrative arc within a longer conflict.
Additional Notes
A sortie is a sudden military attack launched from a defended or besieged position, or a single mission by an aircraft. Sorties are used to break a siege, disrupt enemy preparations, or gather intelligence. They are a sign of proactive defense, rejecting passive waiting. In poetry, the sortie represents the spirit of resistance, the daring move that defies the odds. Related terms include sally, mission, and flight. The sortie's success depends on surprise and audacity, making it a dramatic event. In aerial warfare, a sortie is a single mission by an individual aircraft, a standard measure of operational tempo.
Also Known As
Mission Raid Foray Sally Strike Combat Mission
Skip to main content