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

Arghhh... sorry Tibbly Bobbly... that was like waiting for a number 7 bus! Noting happens for hours, then 2 come along at the same time!


It should really be your go to set a new one!

shazz

Simulpost Shazz! Fourteen hours of nothing then both together. It must be magic!

Whoah! We're on a roll

Something like that!

The draw of poetry obviously works in waves!

shazz

That was fun! Anyway .....

Tis a bit of Christina G Rossetti's "Goblin Market"

Killed 2 stone-throwers with one bird. Found this:

"The knight knocked at the castle gate;
The lady marvelled who was thereat."

"To call the porter he would not blin;
The lady said he should not come in."

Clues: English poet, chap, late 15th/early 16th century.

Ah yes... probably very appropriate for the time it was written but sounding more like a line from a good RPG fantasy game now

It is 'Desire' by William Cornish

Now... an early 20C US poet:

'She bowed and smiled, eliciting applause. . .
The property man hated her dirty birds.
But it had taken years--yes, years--to train them,
To shoulder flags, strike bells by tweaking strings,
Or climb sedately little flights of stairs.'

If possible... poet, title and stanza title also!


ps... sorry to have doubled your 'b's earlier! Tibley Bobley

shazz

Turns and Movies: Duval's Birds - by Conrad Aiken. Obscure or what? I've never read it but looked it up in the index of me book.

Tibs's turn.


Hull

No it's not, it's my turn isn't it?


But never had I breathed that pure serene
'Til I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold

(or something like that - haven't checked)


Too easy for clues.


Hull

I would just like to point out that nobody should consider any clue too easy for me. Thank you.

It's "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" by John Keats. Your first line should've been "Yet did I never breathe its pure serene". Close enough though

Don't worry about doubling my b's Shazz. I'd double them myself but Max Handley, who wrote the book my name was taken from, decided single b's were sufficient

Oh, by the way Shazz, that William Cornish poem is entitled "The Knight and the Lady" according to my book. Maybe it has more than one title if it's called "Desire" in your source. That happens, doesn't it?

Try this one:

"What are the hopes of man? Old Egypt's King
Cheops erected the first Pyramid
And largest, thinking it was just the thing
To keep his memory whole, and mummy hid;
But somebody or other rummaging,
Buglariously broke his coffin's lid:
Let not a monument give you or me hopes,
Since not a pinch of dust remain of Cheops."

No clues?

Sorry about the Keats - couldn't find my Collected anywhere.

This is 'Growing Old' by Byron - tremendous poem, except for the Byronic self-dramatisation - life ending (more or less) at 30.

This female English poet had a very short life, (early 19th c). She really did die at 30. As may be obvious, this is not about herself, though.

Cold in the earth--and the deep snow piled above thee,
Far, far removed, cold in the dreary grave!
Have I forgot, my only Love, to love thee,
Severed at last by Time's all-severing wave?


Hullabaloo

Byron was 36 !

[2 more clues: Yorkshire and a play by Chekhov] - I do spoil you don't I?


Hull

A very moving poem by young Emily Bronte entitled "Remembrance".

Wandering off the Vogon trial a little further .... what's this?

"And get that man with double chin
Who'll always cheat and always win,
Who washes his repulsive skin
In women's tears,"

Non-vogon? I expect you're right...Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough.....??? repulsive skin? Prostetner 4th class Betjeman, John?

Try this one. Clues: Male, non-English, last century. Guaranteed to make you writhe and scream .


All the sun long it was running, it was lovely, the hay
Fields as high as a house, the tunes from the chimneys, it was air
And playing, lovely and watery
And fire green as grass.


You should hear the rest of it!
Aargh!


Hull

'Fern Hill' by Dylan Thomas?

shazz

Well done shazz you clever thing you Now it's your turn.


Hull

'But now is the time of year
For the dark earth, one by one,
To show her slower dreams. And nothing she has ever done
Has given more ease
To her perplexities'

Quite hard I think... US early 20th C

shazz

"Quite" difficult?????? You canNOT be serious.

That's it -
I've criticised both shazz and Tibs now. Two yellow cards means a sending-off. In the absence of the ref I'm sending myself off for a bit.

Anyone fancy bein' Substitute Ref? I'm obviously the least suited to the task, going around committing fouls all the time...


See you when I let myself back on the pitch


Hull

That would be "Wistaria" by Witter Bynner. Why did he call it "Wisteria" though? The nearest it comes to mentioning wisterias is "But these pale, purple images, as if from willows or from pepper trees. And what did the Buddha's knees have to do with anything. Hmmm. Mysterious wisterias.

Quite right Hull! Must try harder to behave yourself, you naughty genius . Just you wait till Sal gets back. Oh boy! Are you going to be in trouble

Yeah! Correct Tibley!

Hull... you obviously have a very ic temprament so we can hardly banish you from your own club and game!

Please come back and join us again... it just wouldn't be the same without you!

BTW... what did I do wrong?

shazz