I just came across this phrase as the title of a book on myth, but I recognize it from some piece of verse that's lodged in the back of my head, and I can't find the damned thing. I suspect it of being Irish, and relatively modern, but beyond that I can't come up with anything. Anyone recognize it?
The bogeman was the fella we were told as kids that would get us if we were bold jon,just a myth he was a scary charachter for kids to keep them in line,still used in jest with smallies ! as above the puca or the fairies are used in a similar way.
To put it in context you could say to a child "if you ever play the bodhran the bogey man will get ya" lol from your posts that one might suit ya, regards Tom
Here in the Cambridgeshire fens, where hedges are unknown and fields are separated by deep drains or dykes, the older generation still remember their mothers warning them not to go too near the edge of the dykes lest the "hookey man" reach out and drag them to their death in the deep water.
That's the one. Thanks - I'm sure that's where Warner got her title from, and the similarity between "bogeyman" and "yogi-man" completely erased the original from my head.
I have no idea where I heard the MacNeice poem, but I guess it stuck, at least a little bit. Probably not from Tyrrell, though I understand he's better at songs than he was at accompaniment the night I heard him playing with Tommy Peoples. I remember it as a spoken piece.
"no go the bogeyman"
"no go the bogeyman"
I just came across this phrase as the title of a book on myth, but I recognize it from some piece of verse that's lodged in the back of my head, and I can't find the damned thing. I suspect it of being Irish, and relatively modern, but beyond that I can't come up with anything. Anyone recognize it?
# Posted on July 17th 2011 by Jon Kiparsky
Re: "no go the bogeyman"
Something here, maybe?
http://www.irishcultureandcustoms.com/3focloir/Creepy.html
Word: Spectre/ Bogeyman
Irish: taibhseach or púca
Pronunciation: thyev-shukh or pook-ah
# Posted on July 17th 2011 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: "no go the bogeyman"
The bogeman was the fella we were told as kids that would get us if we were bold jon,just a myth he was a scary charachter for kids to keep them in line,still used in jest with smallies ! as above the puca or the fairies are used in a similar way.
To put it in context you could say to a child "if you ever play the bodhran the bogey man will get ya" lol from your posts that one might suit ya, regards Tom
# Posted on July 17th 2011 by tombo
Re: "no go the bogeyman"
I wondered whether, like me, you were thinking of Louis MacNeice's poem, Bagpipe Music, but when I checked the bogeymen had fled:
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/bagpipe-music/
Perhaps Marina Warner borrowed the "no go" format from MacNeice's poem for the title of her book.
# Posted on July 17th 2011 by fen slodger
Re: "no go the bogeyman" - a little local trivia
Here in the Cambridgeshire fens, where hedges are unknown and fields are separated by deep drains or dykes, the older generation still remember their mothers warning them not to go too near the edge of the dykes lest the "hookey man" reach out and drag them to their death in the deep water.
# Posted on July 17th 2011 by fen slodger
Re: "no go the bogeyman"
Sean Tyrrell set the MacNeice poem to music and recorded it - I think it was on 'Cry of a Dreamer'. That could be where you've heard it.
# Posted on July 17th 2011 by DaveL35
Re: "no go the bogeyman"
"It's no go the Yogi-man, it's no go Blavatsky"
That's the one. Thanks - I'm sure that's where Warner got her title from, and the similarity between "bogeyman" and "yogi-man" completely erased the original from my head.
I have no idea where I heard the MacNeice poem, but I guess it stuck, at least a little bit. Probably not from Tyrrell, though I understand he's better at songs than he was at accompaniment the night I heard him playing with Tommy Peoples. I remember it as a spoken piece.
# Posted on July 17th 2011 by Jon Kiparsky