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 V

Vapours

Medical Terms
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 old term for nervous disorders or faintness, especially associated with emotional distress. In literature it often reflects exaggerated sensitivity or fashionable melancholy.

Detailed Definition
The vapours was a historical expression used to describe nervous complaints such as dizziness, faintness, anxiety, or emotional instability. In eighteenth-century medicine it was thought to arise from bodily imbalances or rising “vapours” affecting the nerves and mind. Literary works frequently used the term to portray delicate sensibility, particularly among fashionable society. Poets and satirists alike employed it to suggest emotional fragility, romantic languor, or exaggerated feeling, making it both a medical reference and a cultural symbol of refined but unstable sensitivity.
Example
Example in poetry:
The lady suffered from a fit of the vapours; Poets use vapours to describe hysterical feelings; He blamed the swamp vapours for the fever; She fell upon the couch overcome by vapours; The vapours were a common diagnosis for women; Vapours referred to nervous depression in the past.
Additional Notes
Vapours historically referred to nervous faintness believed to affect sensitive individuals. In literature the vapours often symbolised emotional delicacy or exaggerated distress in sentimental characters.
Also Known As
Nervous Vapours Hypochondria Melancholy Vapours
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