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.

I want a simpler life, without the hassle of being online. The work of maintaining a server, the monitoring, and the residual obligations that come with keeping a site alive no longer fit the life I want.

From 4 November 2026 I will not be adding new poems or musical poems to the 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.

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 K

Keep the home fires burning

Idiomatic Phrase
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 idiomatic phrase meaning to maintain domestic normalcy, preserve continuity, or sustain morale during absence; hearth-fire metaphor used in poetry to convey loyalty, enduring connection, or symbolic guardianship through thermal-domestic imagery emphasizing unwavering constancy.

Detailed Definition
Keep the home fires burning means to maintain domestic warmth, loyalty, morale, and continuity while others are absent, especially during war or hardship. In poetry, the idiom evokes hearth, family, waiting, patriotism, endurance, and the emotional labour of those left behind. It can be tender, nostalgic, or politically complex, since it may honour devotion while also revealing gendered expectations of service. A poet might use it to explore love across distance, wartime separation, and the quiet work of sustaining hope.
Example
Example in poetry:
A wartime lyric might show women keeping the home fires burning while soldiers cross the sea; In domestic verse, the phrase can mean preserving love, warmth, and continuity during absence; A poet might use keep the home fires burning to honour patient loyalty; The phrase carries strong associations of home, duty, and separation.
Additional Notes
Keep the home fires burning means maintain domestic life, hope, and loyalty during someone’s absence, especially in wartime. The phrase evokes hearth, warmth, waiting, and the emotional labour of those left behind. In poetry, it suits war poems, migration, seafaring, hospital absence, and family endurance. Students should also ask whose labour keeps the fires alive, since the idiom often hides care work beneath comforting symbolism.
Also Known As
maintain
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