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

Trench poem

Genre
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

Poetry written from or about the trenches of World War I, often characterized by its realistic, unromantic portrayal of war.

Detailed Definition
Often viewed as a sub-genre of war poetry, trench poems emerged during World War I and were typically written by soldiers who had firsthand experience in the trenches. The poetry challenged traditional heroic portrayals of warfare by focusing on the grim reality of daily life, the psychological toll of combat, and the physical horror of the battlefield. Major themes include the futility of war, loss of innocence, and the profound camaraderie among soldiers. Notable poets include Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, and Isaac Rosenberg.
Example
Example in poetry:
Trench poem: Wilfred Owen’s "Dulce et Decorum Est"; Siegfried Sassoon’s "The General"; Isaac Rosenberg’s "Break of Day in the Trenches"; Contemporary: Brian Turner’s "Here, Bullet" echoes WWI trench realism in Iraq War context
Additional Notes
WWI poetry written in or about trenches. Historical subgenre emphasizing mud, death, disillusionment. Study Owen, Sassoon, and Rosenberg as exemplars.
Also Known As
War poem frontline verse soldier poetry WWI poetry
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