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 S

smock

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 loose, shirt-like garment worn as a protective outer layer over clothing, historically worn by agricultural laborers, artisans, and as a woman's undergarment.

Detailed Definition
The smock is a garment of work and practicality, its loose, often gathered shape allowing for free movement in the fields, workshop, or kitchen. In poetry, the smock appears in scenes of rural labor—plowing, milking, harvesting—and its often white or undyed linen suggests cleanliness and humility. It is also a woman's undergarment in the 18th century, so it can carry an intimate, sensual charge. In love poetry, a smock might be undone at the neck, revealing a collarbone. In elegies for the working class, a stained or tattered smock is a poignant symbol of hardship and endurance. Its full sleeves and wide body make it a generous garment, and poets often describe its movement in the wind, waving like a flag of the fields.
Example
Example in poetry:
"Her smock of white linen was a garment of work and of art"; "He wore his smock to the studio, a shield against the paint"; "The smock's full sleeves were wings for her arms"; "She pulled on her smock and became the woman in the field"; "The smock, stained with ink, was the badge of his trade"; "He took off his smock and became a man, not a craftsman"
Additional Notes
The smock is a garment of work and practicality, its loose, often gathered shape allowing for free movement in the fields, workshop, or kitchen. In poetry, the smock appears in scenes of rural labor—plowing, milking, harvesting—and its often white or undyed linen suggests cleanliness and humility. It is also a woman's undergarment in the 18th century, so it can carry an intimate, sensual charge. In love poetry, a smock might be undone at the neck, revealing a collarbone. In elegies for the working class, a stained or tattered smock is a poignant symbol of hardship and endurance. Its full sleeves and wide body make it a generous garment. Related terms include frock, shirt, and shift. Students should note the smock's associations with rural labor and practical, humble living.
Also Known As
artist's frock loose tunic workman's blouse
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