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• 1 2019-03-16T15:08:48-07:00 Cecil Northrop "Me" Poem and Preface, 1923 32 Transcription plain 2021-08-26T11:42:34-07:00 Poem and preface at the beginning of Cecil Northrop's 1923-1924 diary. The poem is a clever takeoff on Rudyard Kipling's "The Vampire." Instead of a woman making a fool of the man, it's the sea.

  Transcription of Poem

  A fool there was and he went to sea,
  Even as you and I,
  The poets they called it brave and free
  But only a fool will follow the sea
  Even as you and I.
  
  A fool there was and his life was spent
  In a vile hole that was never meant
  For a thing God his image lent,
  But we go to sea by our own consent
  For only a fool knows a fool’s content
  Ever as you and I
  
  Oh! The love we’ve lost and the joy we’ve lost
  And the delights of the home we planned
  Are worn by the man who stayed at home
  Who had brains and sense,
  And a whole lot more of things we don’t quite understand
  Even as you and I
  
  A fool there was and he lost his stride
  And all he owns is his foolish hide
  Which is carefully fleeced then flung aside
  To sink or float on the deep sea tide
  Where some of him lived but most of him lied
  Even as you and I.

  Transcription of Preface

  These notes are not written through the motive of conceit, imagining that my life is more interesting than thousands nay, millions of others which have gone before. There is no attempt at style or literary effort. There may be no continuity, or order. It is merely a medium in which I seek relief. A harbor for these knocks life gives, a thanksgiving for life‘s pleasures. A means of relieving that desire to confide. A confessor for those thoughts which must come to all mortals, and which even to your dearest friend you dare not give utterance. If in the years to come when life’s battles (I should say struggle for in the word battle there lies a fairness) have long ceased to send the blood pounding to my brain, I can look through this book and see that I have profited by experience, I will feel that the hours spent in the confessional of these covers has not been wasted. At any event every word every line is sincere. They are my thoughts good or bad.
  
  Belfast Ireland January 7, 1923

  Credits

  Thanks to Johnathan Thayer and Stefan Dreisbach-Williams for their help with these transcriptions.