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 F

Frail

Disease
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

“Frail” describes a body weakened by illness, age, hunger, or exhaustion. In poetry, it often suggests physical vulnerability and the nearness of decline.

Detailed Definition
Though not the name of a specific disease, “frail” is a common poetic description of a body made weak by sickness, poverty, age, or grief. It may evoke trembling limbs, thin breath, pale skin, and dependence on care. Poets use the word to emphasize mortality and the contrast between bodily delicacy and an indifferent world. A frail speaker or figure can also represent emotional susceptibility, making private suffering visible through physical weakness.
Example
Example in poetry:
Frail craft tossed upon the stormy sea (William Cowper, "The Castaway"); Her frail hand rested on the leather cover (Christina Rossetti, "Remember"); Frail blossoms falling in the sudden April wind (Robert Frost, "Nothing Gold Can Stay"); A frail thread binding heart to fleeting life (Emily Dickinson, "Because I could not stop for Death"); Frail human hopes built on shifting sands (Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Ozymandias")
Additional Notes
"Frail" describes a delicate, easily broken physical or emotional condition resulting from illness, old age, or inherent weakness. In poetry across all eras, frailty is a central motif used to contrast ephemeral human life with the enduring permanence of art, nature, or the divine (e.g., Dylan Thomas's "Do not go gentle into that good night," which references "Frail deeds"). Usage Tip: Guide students to examine how poets balance descriptions of physical frailty with inner spiritual resilience, creating poignant emotional tension within elegies and sonnets. Related terms include fragile, attenuated, decrepit, and delicate.
Also Known As
Feeble Delicate Infirm fraile
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