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.

After the death of my mother, 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.

My wife and I are simplifying our days. The server, the monitoring, and the residual obligations that come with keeping a site alive no longer fit the quieter life we 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 S

Skeleton in the cupboard

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

A shameful or embarrassing secret kept hidden from view; variant of skeleton in closet, using cupboard as concealment space, symbolizing buried past threatening present respectability.

Detailed Definition
Skeleton in the cupboard, a British idiomatic phrase for a hidden, embarrassing, or shameful family secret or past misdeed, carries gothic appeal in poetry for unveiling concealed truths, psychological burdens of secrecy, intergenerational trauma, and the tension between public image and private reality. This motif enables poets to craft suspenseful narratives around family legacies, guilt's persistence, revelation's catharsis, and societal hypocrisy, adding dark atmospheric layers and emotional complexity to explorations of identity, inheritance, and the liberating yet disruptive power of bringing hidden elements into light.
Example
Example in poetry:
A family poem might reveal a skeleton in the cupboard when an old letter falls from a Bible; In a Gothic ballad, the mansion's real ghost is the skeleton in the cupboard no one mentions; The phrase means a hidden shameful secret; A poet can use it for mystery, inheritance, and buried guilt.
Additional Notes
Skeleton in the cupboard refers to a hidden shameful secret, especially within a family, institution, or respectable public life. In British English, cupboard is common; American English often uses closet. In poetry, it is rich for Gothic, domestic, and confessional contexts because the home contains concealed bones. Students should notice how the idiom links secrecy, mortality, ancestry, and social reputation. It pairs well with locked rooms, dust, portraits, and inherited guilt.
Also Known As
secret shame
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