Last week in celebration of National Poetry Day’s theme of messages I delved into Dylan’s letters but I ended my blog with the need to write so much more. I wanted to look at his poetry and prose and find the hidden messages he had left us – clues from beyond the grave you could say!
Throughout his life my grandfather loved working things out – he enjoyed decoding cryptic cross words with his father or lying in the bath and sucking boiled sweets while reading an Agatha Christie novel…helping Poirot solve the crime. I know Mum would often catch him (when he was supposed to be working!) huddled over his desk in his writing shed, nose buried in a murder mystery.
But I think this love of cracking codes fed into his writing too. I often wonder if part of his reason for creating the complex rhyming pattern in Author’s Prologue was to not only challenge himself, but also his readers! As moviemakers so often do, I suspect he has added a few ‘Easter eggs’ – the disguised inside jokes that only a few will see – to his work. In his story, ‘The Fight,’ he wrote, “A poem I had printed in the Wales Day by Day column of the Western Mail was pasted on the mirror to make me blush.” This was a little hint, a slight nod towards a teenage misdemeanor that only came to light about forty years or so later. Dylan had plagiarized a poem called ‘His Requiem’ in his early teens, claiming it as his own. Why would Dylan do that when around that time he was furiously filling notebooks with original, and quite remarkable poetry? Who knows for sure? I like to think he was being a touch mischievous – the early glimmers of a cheeky sense of humour.
Dylan must have had so much fun trying to sneak in the odd concealed word or phrase that might raise an eyebrow or two. The “jollyrodgered sea” and the “organplaying wood” some how got past the eagle-eyed editor looking through Dylan’s dog-eared copy of Under Milk Wood. However, “Llareggub” was not so lucky. When the play-for-voices was first published, the spelling used was “Llaregyb”. Having said that, he had been successful before. He had included Llareggub in both The Burning Baby and The Orchards, magnificently hoodwinking the publishers. 
I read somewhere that my grandfather once remarked that T.S.Eliot was nearly toilets. Hmmm, a touch disrespectful to one of the greatest talents of the 20th century, I can only hope that if my grandfather did mention it to his poet friend, he would have appreciated Dylan’s ‘creative’ use of language. Terry Pratchett certainly did, as he used the same device in Discworld – he created Llamedos.
So, I’ve taken on a bit of detective work myself and I think I may have discovered a few other examples of my grandfather’s word play with some of the characters from Under Milk Wood. You may agree, you may not, but, perhaps, some food for thought?
Mrs Ogmore Pritchard – The first letters of her name spell out MOP. Surely that’s not a coincidence? Her character is ‘clean’ in every way. She even asks the sun to “mind it wipes its feet” before it enters her house.
www.arch.org
Rosie Probert – The dead girlfriend of the blind Captain Cat. Within her name you can find the letters RIP.
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Evans the death – The undertaker that dreams of his childhood. Satan can be found within his name. A bit far fetched? Well, in a section of the play, Jack Black prepares to meet Satan in the woods. And, one of the parts my grandfather added after a trip to America was about the undertaker. In the original version he was Thomas the Death. Why the change to Evans?
As I say, I could be barking up the completely wrong tree, though I hope not. Now, what I would really love is for you to go and investigate. Explore my grandfather’s writing (good excuse to go back and rediscover it!) and look for those hidden messages. If you do find any, please, please share them. You can put your thoughts under this blog or on social media. Go on, have fun. I can’t wait…
By the way, a little teaser for you. Check out our Love the Words image above, designed by Lee Jones. Each letter is connected to Dylan’s work and relates to particular poems, can you work them out?
Hannah Ellis – 10th October 2016.
Hannah is a teacher, writer and consultant. You can learn more about her by visiting the website – http://www.hannahellisconsultancy.com
Analysis of an art form should be undertaken with great care if it is not to become preposterous or pretentious. Sorry, but suggesting Evans the Death intentionally contains ‘Satan’ is stretching credibility. Try any name or combination of words and others would be found within. Dylan loved the feel and sound of words. He played with them perfectly combining the seemingly unconnected to wonderous effect, ‘heron priested shore’ for example. This appreciation and use of the ‘colour of saying’ is what exemplifies his poetry and prose. Might I venture the suggestion that this playful love of words meant that Dylan enjoyed the open and obvious playing with language rather than burying it in hidden meanings. To take the Rosie Probert suggestion, what does choosing a name that contains RIP add to her as a character, to the wit and joy of Milk Wood or to Dylan’s reputation as a wordsmith? ‘Bible black’ for example, is a perfect descriptive, a powerful aliteration and might also be argued (should you wish) to have an underlying comment on the chapel Christianity of the 1940’s. It’s out there, openly stated. Why would the poet capable of such brilliance in only two words in the opening sentence of Milk Wood want to bury really rather facile references? Furthermore, if the proposition that he did is valid, why is the play not full of them rather than having a few examples? Why indeed would Dylan need to hide ‘mop’ in the name of Mrs Pritchard when the hideous fastideousness of the character has so brilliantly been portrayed in the story itself?
Hi Josh, Thanks for your comment. As a said in the blog these are just things I’ve picked up and are probably very far fetched. I’m a primary school teacher and I’m always working with children to play around with words and see what they can do with them, but obviously on a far more superficial level than Dylan. As you rightly point out he could do wonders with just two perfect words. I’m certainly not trying to underplay just what I masterpiece Under Milk Wood is, and I’m sorry if my blog gave that intention, especially as I, like you, adore listening to it, especially the first opening paragraph. I think I was trying to show the fun he could have with words. I know when I’ve pointed out all the alliteration, double meanings and rhyming patterns in Under Milk Wood to children and young people and how the sentences roll off your tongue they love it. They also enjoy some of the things I mentioned in the blog and try to include these sorts of things in their writing to trick me! But hey Josh, I’m not an academic (they would hang me out to dry if they read this blog) but I am passionate about loving the words and making literacy accessible for all. I’ve seen so many children disengaged with the current curriculum we have in the UK, I just want to add in a bit of fun and enjoyment. Having said that, I will be careful not to downplay the meticulous care and consideration put into every word and sentence in Under Milk Wood. Best wishes, Hannah
Hi Josh,
Dylan in some cases has used wordplay as a sneaky aside (Llanreggub most famously). Writers also create little mnemonics ( Mop for ogmore pritchard is commonly raised and in keeping with Dylan’s more puckish swipes) particularly when naming characters. This is what Hannah is highlighting here; a literary device. Glad you have such passion for this literary giant,
Lee
Hi Lee, Thanks for your message and for reading my blog. Best wishes, Hannah