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 D

doldrums

Nautical
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

An equatorial region of calm and light, variable winds, causing sailing ships to become becalmed for weeks.

Detailed Definition
The doldrums are the oceanic prison, a wide belt of listlessness that has haunted sailors for centuries. In poetry, they symbolize depression, lethargy, and the loss of all drive—the emotional and creative flatline that comes when external forces offer no traction. The doldrums are not a single storm but a persistent, numbing absence of wind, a psychological state as much as a meteorological one. Poets use the doldrums to evoke the despair of being stuck, the slow atrophy of hope, and the desperate monotony that tests a sailor's sanity. Their crossing is a rite of passage, a victory over internal as well as external stagnation.
Example
Example in poetry:
“The doldrums” are referenced in many sea poems as a region of calms and light winds.; In poetry, the doldrums symbolize depression, lethargy, and the loss of all drive—the emotional flatline.; A poet might describe being becalmed in the doldrums as a spiritual drought, a numbing absence of wind.; The doldrums represent the slow atrophy of hope and the desperate monotony that tests sanity.; Crossing the doldrums is a rite of passage, a victory over internal as well as external stagnation.; The doldrums are not a single storm but a persistent, grinding inactivity that wears the soul.
Additional Notes
The doldrums are a region of the ocean, near the equator, notorious for prolonged calms and light, variable winds, trapping sailing ships for weeks. In poetry, this has become a powerful symbol for depression, lethargy, creative stagnation, and the suffocating loss of all drive. It is a passive antagonist, a state of "unbeing" where no progress is possible and time becomes a slow torment. Poets use the doldrums to evoke the despair of being stuck, the slow atrophy of hope, and the desperate monotony that tests the limits of sanity. Crossing the doldrums is a rite of passage, a psychological as well as a physical trial, representing the victory over internal inertia and the return of purposeful movement.
Also Known As
Equatorial calms horse latitudes (related) the calms
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