Description of the Cicely Fox Smith – Sea Songs and Ballads 1917 – 1922 (1930)
It is a great joy to present to all of you this amazing book. When I saw it in the online store, I thought it was a sea shanty book. Also, I thought this book contained a collection of shanties and songs of the sea. I knew that Miss Smith was great in the field of shanties books.
You can’t even imagine my surprise when I discovered, that the Sea Songs and Ballads 1917 – 1922 do not contain any notes and are a collection of poetry. However, this poetry surprised me even more, reading this book. At the time when I read this book, I felt like a person who gets to know the marine world. The realism of this poetry related to a certain period when sailing ships were undoubtedly still at sea.
The introduction on the inside cover says:
Miss C.Fox Smith is the ‘C.F.S’ whose initials are so well known to the readers of Punch where many of these delightful salt-water poems first appeared. Miss Fox Smith’s knowledge of ships and of those that go down to the sea in them is so remarkable as to be almost clairvoyant, and with that understanding goes a mastery of rhythm and melody.
I confirm that this book is a great source of authentic seafaring poetry of the golden age of the sails. some poems can boldly be used as lyrics; coded songs about the sea, in an authentic atmosphere at the beginning of the 20th century.
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You can find excellent records of sea shanties here. If you want to discuss this book or share your opinion you can do it in my Facebook forum here, or below post in the comment section.
Related to Cicely Fox Smith – Sea Songs and Ballads 1917 – 1922 (1930)
Additional Stan Hugill’s books Shanties and Sailor’ Songs (1969), Sea Shanties (1977), Songs Of The Sea (1977).