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

dressing gown

Apparel
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

A loose, comfortable robe worn after bathing or while lounging, associated with private leisure, intellectual work, and the solitary hours of the poet in their study.

Detailed Definition
The dressing gown holds a special place in the iconography of the poet, from the Romantic recluse to the modern academic. Its fabric—flannel, cashmere, or silk—and its style—often with a belt and shawl collar—convey a sense of refuge from the outer world. In poems about writing and creativity, the dressing gown is the uniform of the inward turn, worn during long nights of composition or reading. It also appears in domestic scenes, where the speaker descends to the kitchen or sits by the fire. In love poetry, the dressing gown of a beloved is a source of olfactory memory—its scent lingers long after the wearer has gone. Its association with both sleep and wakefulness makes it a garment of liminal states, ideal for poems about dawn, insomnia, and the border between dream and reality.
Example
Example in poetry:
"Forgive me, dressing gown! My friend in idle bliss, comrade of leisure, a witness to my secret thoughts" (Piotr Andreevich Viazemsky, "Dressing Gown Farewell"); "Revived when I put on my dressing gown, and reconciled once again with my abandoned home" (Viazemsky); "Nature has donned her dressing gown: snow is falling all around" (Doris McGohon); "The blue dressing gown hung in my boy's wardrobe, an army regulation item no one could throw out" (Ross Donlon); "Dressing-gown hours the tint of alcohol or coffee" (Rosemary Tonks); "His dressing gown, faded and frayed, held the shape of mornings spent in thought"
Additional Notes
The dressing gown holds a special place in the iconography of the poet, from the Romantic recluse to the modern academic. Its fabric—flannel, cashmere, or silk—and its style—often with a belt and shawl collar—convey a sense of refuge from the outer world. In poems about writing and creativity, the dressing gown is the uniform of the inward turn, worn during long nights of composition or reading. It also appears in domestic scenes, where the speaker descends to the kitchen or sits by the fire. In love poetry, the dressing gown of a beloved is a source of olfactory memory—its scent lingers long after the wearer has gone. Its association with both sleep and wakefulness makes it a garment of liminal states, ideal for poems about dawn, insomnia, and the border between dream and reality. Related terms include robe, wrapper, and peignoir. Students should note the dressing gown's role in signaling private, creative, or vulnerable moments.
Also Known As
robe de chambre housecoat lounging attire peignoir wrapper
Skip to main content