"tigers" in Sayers' _Busman's Honeymoon_

[steven....@boeing.com]

First time posting to this group...pardon me if I'm daft. Just wanted to
share a bit of information about the source of a poem in Dorothy Sayers'
_Busman's Honeymoon_, in case it puzzles anyone else.

The poem: My lady gave me a tiger
A sleek and splendid tiger
A striped and shining tiger
All under the leaves of life.

(The reference to "shabby tigers" made just before this comes from Ralph
Hodgson's poem "The Bells of Heaven".)

After wondering about this for several years and making the occasional
inquiry, I finally learned from no less a source than Dr. Barbara Reynolds
(who completed Sayers' translation of the Divine Comedy) that DLS had
written the poem herself.

So there you have it. Hope this hasn't been keeping anyone awake nights.

Coram Deo,
spc (steven....@boeing.com)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Dislike of cats nearly always argues a stiff neck and a proud stomach;
no man can persuade himself he is a hero to his cat." -- DLS

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[Sarah A. Novak]

steven....@boeing.com wrote:
>
>
> (The reference to "shabby tigers" made just before this comes from Ralph
> Hodgson's poem "The Bells of Heaven".)
>

Thanks for the info. I, too, had always wondered about that reference.
I mean, it's possible to get the gist of the reference from the context,
but now that I know where it's from, I can look up the poem and read it
(sort of back to the source, if you will).

Regards,
Sarah
--
Sarah Novak

[Kiwi Carlisle]

steven....@boeing.com wrote:
>
> First time posting to this group...pardon me if I'm daft. Just wanted to
> share a bit of information about the source of a poem in Dorothy Sayers'
> _Busman's Honeymoon_, in case it puzzles anyone else.
>
> The poem: My lady gave me a tiger
> A sleek and splendid tiger
> A striped and shining tiger
> All under the leaves of life.
>

> (The reference to "shabby tigers" made just before this comes from Ralph
> Hodgson's poem "The Bells of Heaven".)
>

> After wondering about this for several years and making the occasional
> inquiry, I finally learned from no less a source than Dr. Barbara Reynolds
> (who completed Sayers' translation of the Divine Comedy) that DLS had
> written the poem herself.
>

Excellent!! I've printed this out and will tuck it into my copy of Stephan Clarke's
_Lord Peter Wimsey Companion_, an otherwise excellent reference work which didn't
manage to track that one.

For everyone's info, Barbara Reynolds is the editor of a good collection of Sayers'
letters, as well as the best biography so far:

TITLE: Dorothy L. Sayers :
her life and soul
EDITION: 1st St. Martin's Griffin ed.
PLACE: New York :
PUBLISHER: St. Martin's Griffin,
YEAR: 1997 1993
AUTHOR: Sayers, Dorothy L. (Dorothy Leigh), 1893-1957.
TITLE: The letters of Dorothy L. Sayers :
1899-1936 : the making of a detective novelist
PLACE: London :
PUBLISHER: Hodder & Stoughton,
YEAR: 1995

--
KIWI CARLISLE
CARL...@WUCHEM.WUSTL.EDU
My return address has been mangled to reduce spam.