I have just finished Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers. It is one of the finest novels I have ever read. It succeeds as a mystery novel, as a period piece, as a commentary on social stratification, and as a complex and magnificent love story. It is the third tale in the saga of Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane, Strong Poison and Have His Carcase being the first two. All three are superb, but Gaudy Night is the capstone.

The three acrostic poems on this page were inspired by the story of Harriet and Peter. The strictures of the acrostic forms I use and of brevity make them analogous to Plato’s Myth of the Cave in terms of reflecting the actuality of the love story, but those who have read any of the three books will hear an echo.

Downfall

Deliver a roman à clef
Designed to cure the blind & deaf

Of incomplete sensoria

Which then restores euphoria

Now Knowledge, that most bitter pill
Necessitates a lonely hill


Free Pass

Fret & weep
Fall asleep

Rouse the area
Raise hysteria

Enter Bliss

Extra kiss


High Time

Heavens! We’ll be late for T
If, though, you’ve the dough-re-mi
Glean & dawdle; twinkle; gleam
Hasten not! It spoils the scheme