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Tipcat

Dreamed c. 1920? by Anonymous #57, a correspondent of Havelock Ellis

Call in the tipcat, cut off its tail
Fold up some eggs in a saucepan;
Sit on the rest, like an elderly male,
And gulp down the whole as a horse can.

--Anonymous #57

It is evident that the tipcat suggested a cat's tail, while the suggestion of a cooking recipe in 'cut off its tail' led on to eggs and saucepan; the eggs suggested 'sitting,' while 'gulp,' as the dreamer noted, appeared as 'gallop,' and suggested the horse. The ease with which the whole fell into a completely rhymed doggerel stanza is due to the fact that the dreamer is a poet.
--Havelock Ellis--

SOURCE: The Dream World by Havelock Ellis, 1922

EDITOR'S NOTES

A tipcat is a small piece of wood tapered at both ends, used for a game also called tipcat. When the tipcat is struck with a bat, it springs into the air, and can then be batted for distance.

Ellis likes to explain away dreams as mere fusions of daytime images and word-associations, as here. Not that wordplay doesn't happen, especially in writers' dreams. I just disagree with Ellis that this is all. Even doggerel can have depth: reconsider that notorious dream-poem Hogamus Higamus.

--Chris Wayan

LISTS AND LINKS: games - food - dream humor - play - language - puns - dream poems - Hogamus Higamus- how about Havelock Ellis's own dreams?

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