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

swordplay

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

Swordplay is the art or practice of fighting with swords, encompassing fencing and broader combat techniques.

Detailed Definition
Swordplay enters poetry as a fluid metaphor for the exchange of strokes and the dance of the blades. In literary contexts it symbolizes the skilled contest. Poets use swordplay to explore themes of the measured attack, the parry that saves, and the aesthetic of the sword that has linked the martial art to the poetry of movement and precision.
Example
Example in poetry:
Swordplay’s measured exchange and flashing lines supply poets with images of intellectual and physical dialogue; Verse of the salle or the street uses the art for the conversation that ends in a touch; “They spoke in the language of swordplay until every sentence had found its parry” illustrates formal combat; Educational poetry shows the skill as the civilized form of the duel; Poets return to swordplay whenever attack and defense must share the same elegant grammar.
Additional Notes
Swordplay, as the general art of fighting with swords, allows poets to move freely between the formal fencing of the salle and the broader techniques of the duel or the battlefield. The term’s neutrality can itself become a resource. Classroom discussion can usefully examine when a poet chooses the general word over a more specific one such as fencing or the duel. Related forms include every named sword art. The image is effective when the exact nature of the blade contest must remain temporarily open.
Also Known As
Fencing Art Swordsmanship Blade Duel Combat Dance fencing
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