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 A

Apathy

Psychology
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

Apathy: A psychological state of emotional detachment, indifference, and lack of motivation, often used in poetry to express existential ennui, spiritual desolation, or the numbing effects of modern life.

Detailed Definition
Apathy in poetry often signifies spiritual exhaustion or defensive withdrawal from overwhelming pain. It appears as hollow tones, sparse diction, and stagnant imagery, contrasting with passionate engagement. Poets employ apathy to critique modern indifference, depict depression, or highlight moments of crisis where feeling becomes unbearable, inviting readers to question the cost of emotional numbness.
Example
Example in poetry:
Apathy in Ezra Pound's "Arides" portrays a man so consumed by apathy he resigns himself to an unhappy marriage; Paul Verlaine's "Apathy" is an elegy to nihilistic despondency; In war poetry, apathy appears as emotional numbness on a "grey firm road"; Contemporary poems like "Apathy In Your Fingernails" present apathy as a curse that replaces empathy; Mihaela Pirjol's "Apathy" describes the speaker as an "apathetic witness" with "lethargic eyes"; Zulfikar Ghose's "Decomposition" critiques societal apathy towards homelessness.
Additional Notes
Apathy in poetry is rarely a neutral state; it often functions as a defensive withdrawal from overwhelming pain or as a pointed critique of modern life's spiritual emptiness. Poets convey apathy through flat diction, monotonous rhythms, and imagery of grayness, silence, or inertia. In teaching, distinguish apathy from depression: depression involves persistent sadness, while apathy is characterized by emotional flatness and lack of motivation. Apathy can also serve as a powerful political statement in protest poetry, where it critiques societal indifference to suffering. Students should consider how a poet's choice of form—such as the use of repetition or minimalism—can amplify themes of emotional numbness.
Also Known As
Indifference emotional numbness listlessness impassivity torpor Ennui
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