A University of Liverpool researcher has discovered two previously unknown poems by literary icon Virginia Woolf.
Dr Sophie Oliver, from the University of Liverpool's Department of English, uncovered the two poems in the back of a file of letters Woolf wrote to her niece, held in the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin.
Entitled "Angelica" and "Hiccoughs," the poems were composed for her niece and nephew, Angelica and Quentin Bell, sometime after March 1927. Seemingly quickly drafted in pencil on matching grey-blue paper, with several revisions, these pieces radiate humour and imagination, and offer a rare glimpse into Woolf's lighter side and childlike qualities.
A century on from Woolf's seminal novel Mrs Dalloway, in an essay published in the Times Literary Supplement today (Thursday 16 January), Dr Oliver discusses what the poems can tell us about Woolf's relationship with poetry and her wider family.
Although Woolf is better known as a novelist and often dismissed poetry as an art form, she occasionally turned to it as a tool for satire, play, and bonding.
"Angelica" playfully critiques Angelica's girlish antics, including sipping wine and playfully flirting with a family friend (the "Dadie" referred to in the poem was George Rylands, a poet and Shakespeare scholar who once worked for the Woolfs' Hogarth Press). The poem explores femininity and sexuality, particularly in two lines at the end that Woolf crossed out, themes that connect to her broader concerns about societal expectations for women and girls.
In "Hiccoughs", Woolf employs whimsical wordplay and animal imagery, drawing comparisons to Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll. Although she did not have children of her own, both poems point to the ways Woolf threw herself into relationships with her young relatives.
Commenting on the poems, Dr Oliver said: "The rediscovery of "Angelica" and "Hiccoughs" reminds us that even in her lighter moments, Woolf was a master of language and connection. These poems, while light-hearted, reveal the depths of Woolf's connections to those she loved. They are informal but intimate snapshots of Woolf's relationships, her humour, and her creativity. The playfulness of the poems might seem a world away from her experimental novels, but their energy and vitality, and their attempts to connect with others, were features of her fiction too."
Born in 1882, Woolf was a pioneer of modernist literature and a central figure in the Bloomsbury Group. Her works, known for their experimental style and deep psychological insight, include classics like Orlando and The Waves. Woolf's writings continue to influence literature, art, and feminist theory to this day.
The full text of both poems is as follows:
Angelica
The name was lazy & lovely
But the name was not the whole of her,
There was the body & the soul of her.
Oh love[?] Angelica Angelica.
The Angel name
But oh the shame
Of bringing
Drink she took to,
Dadie too,
Fellow Dadie,
Oh how shady
Dwelling in the violet shady
Viper kissed,
To sport with Dadie,
And the tangled yellow hair!
Hiccoughs
To Quentin Stephen Claudian
Poor Quentin
Went in
To a cough?
Or should we call it cup?
For all summer he
Hiccough? Hiccup?
Will swallow it up,
Swallow or chuff?
But swallow a chuff [sic]?
Will cough it up
Cough it off,
Fly swallow, cough chaff.
Images of the written poems 'Angelica' and 'Hiccoughs' are credited to Virginia Woolf Collection, Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin. By permission of the Society of Authors as literary representative of the Estate of Virginia Woolf.
Image of Virginia Woolf licenced under Creative Commons by National Portrait Gallery, London. Image by George Charles Beresford, platinum print, July 1902.
