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 T

Terrain

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

Terrain refers to the physical landscape and features of a battlefield that influence military strategy and movement.

Detailed Definition
Terrain shapes warfare's physical reality, dictating strategy, vulnerability, and the very possibility of survival across varied landscapes from mud-choked trenches to mountain passes. Poets use terrain to ground abstract military conflict in vivid, sensory detail, the specific characteristics of a battlefield's landscape often becoming inseparable from the human suffering that occurs upon it, transforming ordinary geographical features into lasting symbols of historical violence and loss.
Example
Example in poetry:
A poem might ground abstract battlefield conflict in the vivid, sensory detail of specific terrain; Poets use "terrain" to connect human suffering inseparably to the landscape upon which it occurs; A verse could contrast a battlefield's mud-choked terrain with the mountain passes of another campaign; The term appears in poetry transforming ordinary geographical features into lasting symbols of loss; A poem might describe how terrain itself dictated a battle's tragic, unavoidable outcome; Historical war poetry sometimes uses terrain to root violence in a specific, remembered place.
Additional Notes
Terrain refers to the physical landscape and features of a battlefield that influence military strategy and movement. Terrain is a critical factor in military operations, affecting visibility, cover, and speed. It includes hills, forests, rivers, and urban areas. In poetry, terrain is the stage of war, the ground that is fought over, shaped by, and often shaped. Related terms include ground, topography, and landscape. The use of terrain, from high ground to concealment, is a key tactical consideration. The term "terrain analysis" is a standard military process. The soldier's relationship with terrain, from the jungle to the desert, is a recurring theme.
Also Known As
Ground Landscape Topography Countryside Battlefield Field
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