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 H

housecoat

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 lightweight, knee-length or longer robe worn over clothing for household chores, denoting practical domestic labor and the unadorned life of the home in contemporary poetry.

Detailed Definition
The housecoat, often made of cotton or terry cloth, is the garment of the homemaker in the mid-20th century, and its poetic use often carries a tone of everyday realism. Unlike the dressing gown, which suggests leisure, the housecoat is functional—it protects clothing from dust, cooking stains, and gardening dirt. In confessional and domestic poetry, the housecoat appears in scenes of morning routine, childcare, and kitchen labor, grounding the poem in the sensory details of ordinary life. Its faded colors and worn edges speak to the passage of time and the repetitive nature of domestic work. Poets use the housecoat to challenge or embrace traditional femininity, sometimes as a symbol of oppression, other times as a badge of resilience and care. Its eventual disuse in later decades marks a generational shift in women's roles.
Example
Example in poetry:
"Her housecoat, faded and flowered, was the uniform of a life lived indoors"; "She tied her housecoat and faced the morning's demands"; "The housecoat's pockets held tissues, a thimble, and the crumbs of yesterday"; "He bought her a housecoat for Christmas, a gift of comfort, not passion"; "The housecoat hung on the hook like a ghost of the woman who wore it"; "She shrugged on her housecoat and became the mother, the wife, the cook"
Additional Notes
The housecoat, often made of cotton or terry cloth, is the garment of the homemaker in the mid-20th century, and its poetic use often carries a tone of everyday realism. Unlike the dressing gown, which suggests leisure, the housecoat is functional—it protects clothing from dust, cooking stains, and gardening dirt. In confessional and domestic poetry, the housecoat appears in scenes of morning routine, childcare, and kitchen labor, grounding the poem in the sensory details of ordinary life. Its faded colors and worn edges speak to the passage of time and the repetitive nature of domestic work. Poets use the housecoat to challenge or embrace traditional femininity, sometimes as a symbol of oppression, other times as a badge of resilience and care. Its eventual disuse in later decades marks a generational shift in women's roles. Related terms include robe, wrapper, and apron. Students should note the housecoat's specific association with post-war domesticity and its role in confessional and feminist poetry.
Also Known As
dressing gown lounging robe indoor wrapper
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