Well, I've had to re-edit the list of major poetry books above. I ran across another early one via inter-library loan titled MEN OF MEN (1900) with about 50 more poems. Most of these are also intensely patriotic but there's one about a tramp freighter that is a precursor to her later nautical poems. We'll be posting these poems one by one onto the Oldpoetry website over the next month if you're interested.

In the meantime I thought I'd post another one of her poems that Bob Zentz has set to music, on his long awaited but not yet released CD of C. Fox Smith poems:

Casey's Concertina

There are lights a-flashing in the harbour
From the ships at anchor where they ride,
And a dry wind going through the palm-trees
And the long-low murmur of the tide …
And there's noise and laughter in the foc's'le,
And the bare feet beating out the tune
To the sound of Casey's concertina
Underneath the great gold moon —
Creaky old leaky concertina
Underneath the great gold moon.

There's a milky glimmer on the water,
And the lonely glitter of the stars,
And a light breeze blowing up the roadstead,
And a voice a-sighing in the spars,
A-sighing, crying in the backstays,
And the furled sails sleeping overhead,
And the sound of Casey's concertina,
Singing of a time that's fled —
Leaky old creaky concertina
Singing of a dream that's dead.

Notes:

From SHIPS AND FOLKS, edited by Cicely Fox Smith, published by Elkin Mathews, London, © 1920, p. 52.

This is from a set of poems entitled "The Way of the Ship" which were originally set to music by Easthope Martin, and published as FIVE CHANTEY SONGS, Enoch & Sons, © 1920.

In my opinion, Zentz's musical arrangement is much better than that of Easthope Martin; it's the same tune that Bob uses for "Old Grey Squirrel" by Alfred Noyes.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble