Origin: Sheila, Dark Sheila?????? (Agatha Christie

Subject: Lyr. Add: I Wore My Canary Suit (Agatha Christie)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 05 Jan 11 - 02:18 PM

Lyr. Add: I Wore My Canary Suit
Agatha Christie

I wore my new canary suit
To go and meet my love,
We talked and talked of everything
In earth and heaven above.

I went again to meet my love,
The years had flitted by,
I wore my old canary suit
To bid my love goodbye.

I took it to a jumble sale
But brought it back once more
And hung it on an inner peg
Within my cupboard door.

I shall not meet my love again
For he is in his grave.
So- I've an old moth-eaten suit
And he is young and brave....

1965?
For some reason, this little poem rReminded me of Dark Sheila, although quite different.
Agatha Christie, 1973, Poems, Dodd, Mead & Company.

Subject: Lyr. Add: Dark Sheila (Agatha Christie)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 04 Jan 11 - 07:45 PM

Lyr. Add: Dark Sheila
Agatha Christie

Sheila, dark Sheila, what is that you're seeing?
What is it that you are seeing, that you're seeing in the fire?
I see a lad that loves me.... And I see a lad that leaves me....
And a third lad, a Shadow Lad.... (and he's the lad that grieves me)
And whatever I am seeing,
There's no fearing and no fleeing....
But whatever I am seeing, it is not my heart's desire....

Sheila, dark Sheila, with whom will you be roaming?
With whom will you be roaming when the summer day has flown?
A lad there is who loved me- but loves me now no longer,
A lad there is who left me (and oh! his love grows stronger!)
But wherever I go roaming,
You shall never find me homing,
For wherever I go roaming, I must wander all alone....

'Sheila, dark Sheila, will you listen to my pleading?
Will you listen to my pleading, will you recompense my pain?
For I'm the lad who loved you, the lad who so deceived you.
I left you for another girl, and oh! I fear I grieved you!
But if you'll hear my pleading
As across the moor you're speeding,
Oh! if you'll hear my pleading, I'll return to you again.'

'Sheila, dark Sheila, will you hearken to my calling!
Will you hearken to my calling, as I call from far away?
For I'm the lad that left you (but never could forget you),
And I'm the lad that loved you from the very hour he met you!
And if you'll hear my calling
As the shades of night are falling,
Oh! if you'll hear my calling, I'll be yours alone alway!'

But Sheila, dark Sheila, is out upon the moorland.
She's out upon the moorland where the heather meets the sky!
And the lads shall never find her, for there's one walks by her side there,
A Stranger Lad, a Shadow Lad, who would not be denied there....
She turned her to his calling
As the shades of night were falling,
She turned her to his calling.... and she answered to his Cry....

First published in 1924 in a volume with the title, The Road of Dreams.
Poems, Agatha Christie, 1973, Dodd, Mead & Company.

Subject: RE: Origin: Sheila, Dark Sheila?????? (Agatha Christie
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 11 Dec 10 - 12:40 PM

So put the lines together and it's:

Sheila, dark Sheila, what is it that you're seeing?
What is it that you're seeing, that you're seeing in the fire?
I see a lad that loves me - and I see a lad that leaves me,
And a third lad, a shadow lad - and he's the lad that grieves me.

And whatever I am seeing, there's no fearing and no fleeing . . .
But whatever I am seeing, it is not my heart's desire. . . .
Sheila, dark Sheila, with whom will you be roaming?
With whom will you be roaming when the summer day has flown?

A lad there is who loved me - but loves me now no longer,
A lad there is who left me (and oh! his love grows stronger!
But wherever I go roaming, you shall never find me homing,
For wherever I go roaming, I must wander all alone...

Given the 1919 date of original publication, it has to be read in the context of the Great War.

Subject: RE: Origin: Sheila, Dark Sheila?????? (Agatha Christie
From: GUEST,^&*
Date: 10 Dec 10 - 02:46 PM

Well done, Jim Dixon - as ever.

Subject: RE: Origin: Sheila, Dark Sheila?????? (Agatha Chri
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 10 Dec 10 - 01:32 PM

I should have added: The poem was also apparently printed in a periodical called Poetry of To-day, Volume 1 (Erskine MacDonald, Ltd., 1919).

The Mysterious Mr. Quin was first published in 1930.

Subject: RE: Origin: Sheila, Dark Sheila?????? (Agatha Chri
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 10 Dec 10 - 01:09 PM

The lines above are part of a longer poem (or song?) that Agatha Christie wrote herself. Here's a bit more, but it might not be complete:

From Poems by Agatha Christie (London: William Collins and Sons, 1973), page 44:


And whatever I am seeing, there's no fearing and no fleeing . . .
But whatever I am seeing, it is not my heart's desire. . . .
Sheila, dark Sheila, with whom will you be roaming?
With whom will you be roaming when the summer day has flown?

A lad there is who loved me - but loves me now no longer,
A lad there is who left me (and oh! his love grows stronger!
But wherever I go roaming, you shall never find me homing,
For wherever I go roaming, I must wander all alone. ...

Subject: RE: Sheila, Dark Sheila??????
From: GUEST,^&*
Date: 09 Dec 10 - 04:38 AM

Hmmm... Smacks of one of the minor Irish poets of the late 19th or early 20th C. - kind of sub-Yeatsian feel to it.

Subject: RE: Sheila, Dark Sheila??????
From: Joe Offer
Date: 09 Dec 10 - 04:26 AM

Well, the Mt. Holyoke author used the same four lines Agatha Christie used....and my guess is the Holyoke author got them from Agatha Christie. The song does not sound traditional to me.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Sheila, Dark Sheila??????
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Dec 10 - 02:51 AM

Try this.

Mt Holyoke source

Subject: RE: Sheila, Dark Sheila??????
From: Freddie Fox
Date: 31 Oct 99 - 06:45 PM

Well, they haven't so far, Bert - we'll try just one more time before I give up in disgust!

Subject: RE: Sheila, Dark Sheila??????
From: Bert C
Date: 27 Oct 99 - 09:02 PM

Never thought this would be such a tough one when I sent Julia here. Anyway, this will keep it from falling off the bottom of the 7-day list. Hang in there, Julia -- someone will come up with something (I hope!)

Bert C.

Subject: RE: Sheila, Dark Sheila??????
From: Freddie Fox
Date: 21 Oct 99 - 05:31 PM

This is driving me spare! If no-one knows the song, would anyone like to write the rest of it for me, because I'm blowed if I know where it's going.

Please - someone put me out of my misery!

Subject: RE: Sheila, Dark Sheila??????
From: Freddie Fox
Date: 17 Oct 99 - 06:15 PM

This is so frustrating. It's much easier to prove that something exists than that it doesn't. I'm going to put in the whole 'verse' - maybe she modified it from something else. Of course, the whole thing is completely irrelevant, but I do hate not knowing.

Sheila, dark Sheila, what is it that you're seeing?
What is it that you're seeing, that you're seeing in the fire?
I see a lad that loves me - and I see a lad that leaves me,
And a third lad, a shadow lad - and he's the lad that grieves me.

It has been suggested that, if not traditional, it may be from vaudeville... Please keep thinking for me.

Subject: RE: Sheila, Dark Sheila??????
From: Martin _Ryan
Date: 17 Oct 99 - 12:05 PM

Interesting! there are lots of "Siles" (pronounced Sheila) and lots of "Dark's" (pronounced "dark"!) but I can't think of a "dark Sheila".

Regards

Subject: RE: Sheila, Dark Sheila??????
From: catspaw49
Date: 16 Oct 99 - 11:41 AM

John Jacob Niles...Famous performer who brought much tradional music out of the Southern Mountains....But as it turned out, much of the "Traditional" stuff wasn't!!! HE wrote it and passed it off as traditional. We have a thread or two on him.....Run a forum search for John Jacob Niles, or just Niles and you'll be justly entertained.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Sheila, Dark Sheila??????
From: Freddie Fox
Date: 16 Oct 99 - 11:18 AM

What the Sam Hill is one of them?

Subject: RE: Sheila, Dark Sheila??????
From: catspaw49
Date: 16 Oct 99 - 09:42 AM

Maybe she had a "Nilesean Complex."

Spaw

Subject: Sheila, Dark Sheila??????
From:
Date: 16 Oct 99 - 07:52 AM

This is the first line of a 'traditional Irish ballad' quoted in the last story [Lover's Lane] of the Agatha Christie book 'The Mysterious Mr. Quin'. Has anyone ever heard of this song? I can find no trace of it anywhere, but why would Agatha Christie claim it as traditional if she had in fact made it up?

Julia