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 Wolf From The Doorstep

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 idiom meaning to secure enough food or resources to stave off hunger or destitution; in poetry, it evokes the desperate struggle for survival and the constant threat of impoverishment.

Detailed Definition
This variation imagines hardship as a hungry wolf waiting outside a home. In poetry, work, bread, firewood, or community may keep the animal at bay for one more night. The phrase gives economic anxiety a fable-like form, but its domestic setting keeps the threat immediate: survival is not abstract when claws scratch against the door.
Example
Example in poetry:
The baker saves enough flour to keep the wolf from the doorstep through winter; In the poem, a small lamp keeps the wolf from the doorstep by giving the family courage; The farmer's careful harvest keeps the wolf from the doorstep when the roads are closed; The speaker works two jobs to keep the wolf from the doorstep, though the cost is exhaustion.
Additional Notes
To “keep the wolf from the doorstep” means to earn or obtain enough to meet basic needs and avoid hardship. The wolf symbolizes hunger, poverty, or danger. This idiom is especially useful in writing about survival, modest income, or economic insecurity.
Also Known As
Keep The Wolf From The Door Keep The Wolf From One's Door
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