h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Wodwo by Ted Hughes - A984639
Author: deemikay - U189265

An entry on a fairly well-known poem.

I think it may need a bit of help with the structure, so any suggestions please let me know.

Also, if I've said anything factually incorect about Middle English poetry... let me know! I'm not an expert.

deemikay

I enjoyed reading this.

I thought the structure was OK - maybe add 'of the author' to the title 'brief biography'

I had a quick look for links, and there aren't many entries about poets and poetry in the Guide.

You would seem to be the right person to fill some gaps!

You could link to A877881 though when you talk about the Hobbit.

Sprout

Very nice entry!

The word "wodwo", as you mention, does come from Sir Gawain where it occures as "wodwos". This is not, however, the only source of the word. It occurs as well in Old Enlish as "wuduwosa". The first element is our modern word "wood"; the wuduwosa is a creature of the forest. The second element is more obscure but may derive from the verb "wesan" "to strive or contend". And so, the wuduwosa would be an enemy in the forest. It is sometimes translated as "faun" or "satyr" because it was used by Old English scribes to gloss those words in Latin texts.

Tolkien also used the word (truncated) in The Return of the King Chapter five as "wose", the name of the people of Ghan-buri-Ghan in the Druidan forest.

Now that I've dealt with one word in your entry, maybe another time I'll discuss the Middle English Poetry.

I certainly have no issue with your treatment of Middle English Poetry.

A small additional note on wodwo: the form in Sir Gawain, "wodwos", is plural; the Old English form I sited previously, "wuduwosa", is singular. The word was fairly commonly used up to the 16th century to describe wild men of the forest, the figure that came to be called the "Green Man" in the early twentieth century.

I'm sure I've come across the truncated form Tolkien uses in the Lord of the Rings somewhere in old english poetry but I can't seem to pin it down . . .

Thanks a lot anhaga! I'll add that info in if you don't mind... I've seen your entries and comments on Middle and Old English literature before, so I thought you might be able to help.
I'll tidy it up when I get the opportunity.

Thanks for everyones comments. I think I might add a few more entries on individual poems.... as mentioned, there's not that much in the Guide.

deemikay

I'm happy to give my thoughts anytime. I'm afraid Ted Hughes is a bit too Modern for me, but I'm happy to help.

Changes have been made...

I've quoted you verbatim anhaga, hope u don't mind. If someone tells me how, I'll put you down as co-writer. All's fair... etc etc..

deemikay

at the bottom of the edit page there should be a window for adding researchers. You need to add a comma and the researcher's number and then click "update researchers" before you update the entry.

Ta-daaa!!!! finally got round to updating that co-writer thinghy.

Any other comments welcome....

deemikay

Here's a totally unhelpful comment (except that it might make you feel good):

I like it a lot.

I wholeheartedly agree with your parenthesis! Thanks!

deemikay

Is nobody a poetry fan or is this just badly written?

deemikay

Are you meaning "is no one commenting because no one is a poetry fan?" If that is the question, I suspect the answer is "yes, no one is a poetry fan." Sad, isn't it?

I know that that's the answer. It's a shame.... Poetry's almost a dead art in the popularity stakes. As such, I don't expect this to be selected soon.... But as long as there's a few folk that it means something to, that's ok.

I find it so sad that poetry gets a bad rap (pun intended) in today's culture of mass market poetry. The world (in a sense) revolves around pop music, but everybody gets trained to think poetry is "hard". High School English teachers always save the poetry unit for the student-teacher, who's terrified anyway, and so, the students think poetry is somehow terrifying. As one of my University professors always hammered into me, poetry is historically more ancient than prose and far more natural to humans as a form of expression. It's too bad we've (as a culture) grown so out of touch.

I agree completely. School, in a sense, programs you into believing that poetry is difficult, obtuse. I wish it wasn't the case. It almost worked on me... I always felt guilty about getting poetry books out of the library or in bookshops. But I realised that I do actually like it! I'm not ashamed anymore!

Some poetry is "hard" (and not nearly as effective in my opinion) but this is not the case for all. People seem to associate all poetry with that which they learn at school. Not the case at all... it's a massive field with something for everyone. It's just not "fashionable".

And poetry probably is older than prose. And it's adapted itself so much over the millenia that I hope (fingers crossed!) that it will survive for some time yet!

deemikay

I was fortunate that one of those student-teachers was actually fond of poetry and realized that it wasn't a hard thing.

I suspect the poetry that you describe as being hard is the kind that is made by poets who think of themselves as being something profound and mysterious and so they write opaque and inaccessible work. But when you look at the great poetry of the world, it is meant to communicate to anyone. And, again, our culture is permeated by poetry and it is hugely popular; it's just that few want to admit that eminem, for example, writes poetry.

I agree with everything you say. Poetry is about people and the way people think. It's just that the "intellectual" poetry is seen as the main field. Nursery rhymes and some song lyrics (a very good example is Eminem, but also oldies like Dylan and Leonard Cohen) are also poetry.

I was also lucky to have an excellent teacher at school who placed great emphasis on poetry. It was through her I discovered poets I might never have found.

deemikay

you, know, gangsta rap is just as much poetry as "the rape of the lock". I can still remember how much trouble "the rape of the lock" was to first year university students. But I don't have time or patience for gangsta rap. Every kind of poetry is hard if the audience doesn't have the background to place it in context. This next story is a little off poetry (but just a little): When I was almost a graduate student, I took an introductory English Augustan Literature course while I was taking an advanced Classical Epic course. I remember reading a passage of Fielding's Tom Jones to the Classics class and I was drowned out by the raucous and tearful laughter. When we covered the same passage in the English class, everyone was just puzzled (except the instructor and I). We don't get taught what used to be considered the common heritage of world literature any more and so we've lost the context for what you call "intellectual" poetry.