60. 1915 Some Soul Searching

These next 2 are post meeting Granny and in my book a quest for some understanding of who he is and what he is about

Women Ought to

Women ought to marry young
As I don’t think a woman of 30
‘as any better judgement or knows any
Better what she wants than the woman
Of 20, on the other hand her maternal instinct
Is more developed and is far more likely
To take pity on some worthless creature and
Marry him than she would have done 10
Years ago, I think she is quite likely
To make mistakes

I am not sure here whether he has got to be 31 and feels that no one would be interested in him except an older woman or is it that older women without a husband are desparate and will take anything so as to have a husband? A different time/era when to be a spinster past 20 odd was not the done thing I expect. But true words to take on someone just to have someone because you are expected to have one acn not be right !

The Confession

In public of course I must bear myself over
As modest in all that I am and I do
In private I think I am decidedly clever
Excelled if at all by a fortunate few
In public I rave over other folks labours
And wish I could do things as finely as they
And when I am alone I look down on my neighbours
And think of myself as superior clay
In public I giggle at other mens chatter
To brilliance in banter I take off my hat
In private I sneer what a cheap line of patter
My dullest remarks are much brighter than that
In public I say I am a poetaster
Who writes little rhymes for little people to see
But really I am at least think so as a regular master

That Shakespeare and Byrom are nothing to me

For public consumption its clearly my duty
To speak of my (L) Books with a modesty vast
In private I think my fine manly beauty
Has Mr Adonis lashed tightly to the mast
In public I place with immense circumspection
My thoughts egotistical, back on the shelf
In private I think myself near to perfection
Don’t you feel like that now concerning yourself

Oct 12th 1915 FAI

Powerful writing I see here, he was questioning what he was doing and who he was as a man? ( I can tell you that it reflects a few thoughts I have..... and I guess most of us who have nodded and laughed politely in company whilst privately thinking .. 'how dull' , 'how uninteresting' etc)

I have certainly opened some lines up for him "In public I say I am a poetaster. Who writes little rhymes for little people to see. But really I am at least think so as a regular master. That Shakespeare and Byrom are nothing to me. For public consumption its clearly my duty "

How more public can the world of the internet and blogsphere be for millions of folk to read .. this medium would have blown his mind!