Virginia Woolf poems unearthed in Texas

Discovery reveals author's fun side

Fans of twentieth-century literature, gather around. According to a discovery made by a lecturer from the University of Liverpool, author Virginia Woolf was a poet as well as a novelist and essayist – and a fun one, at that.

According to the American broadcasting organisation National Public Radio (NPR), lecturer of modernism Sophie Oliver from the University of Liverpool uncovered the two informal poems in the back of a file of letters Woolf wrote to her niece. The file was held in the Harry Ransom Centre, an archive library at the University of Texas at Austin.

The University of Liverpool website reveals that the poems were titled Angelica and Hiccoughs, and were composed for Woolf's niece and nephew, Angelica and Quentin Bell, sometime after March 1927. Both poems appear to be scribbled in on matching grey-blue paper, with several revisions.

"It's obvious these two quickly drafted poems," said Oliver. "And I immediately think 'well, that's odd.' Because Virginia Woolf isn't a poet."

Radiating humour and imagination, the poems offer a rare glimpse into Woolf's lighter side and childlike qualities. The poem titled Hiccoughs is rife with puns, playing with sounds and language. "Poor Quentin / went in / to a cough? Or should we call it a cup? / Hiccough? Hiccup?"

Throughout the poem, Woolf employs whimsical wordplay and animal imagery. Angelica, meanwhile, playfully critiques her niece Angelica's girlish antics. According to Oliver, the discovery of both poems underscores Woolf's fun side twinned with her mastery of language.

"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," says Oliver.

Oliver speculates that the poems were missed by other researchers "because people are not necessarily looking in a folder of letters to her niece, all of which have been published - or the interesting ones, at least."

Woolf had no children of her own, which Oliver says was a "sore point" for her. However, Woolf's poems to her niece and nephew give an intimate snapshot of the connection she had cultivated with the children in her family.

Born in 1882, Woolf was a pioneer of modernist literature. Her works, known for their experimental style and deep psychological insight, include classics such as Mrs Dalloway, Orlando, and The Waves. Woolf's writings continue to influence literature, art, and feminist theory to this day.