Selected poems - John Masefield

Readers are again turning to the work of John Masefield (1878-1967) for its verbal skill, thematic range and a human generosity and warmth rare in the poetry of our time. Masefield looked to Browning rather than Tennyson as a model, hence the rich texture of his verse and the centrality of the speaking voice. He can be an exquisite lyricist and elegist; he is also a balladeer, a master of light verse and, as Gavin Ewart has said,

`a first-class narrative poet, the last full-blown one we have had.'

Masefield was born in Ledbury, Herefordshire, where he had an idyllic early childhood. At 16 he went to sea in the merchant navy, but soon left the navy for two years of wandering in America. Back in England he published his Salt-Water Ballads in 1902. It was a confident beginning, and the books that followed earned him a wide readership; his Collected Poems eventually sold 200,000 copies. In 1930 he succeeded his friend Robert Bridges as Poet Laureate.



Donald E. Stanford, the American poet, critic and editor, made this representative selection from Masefield's prolific output, and provides a biographical introduction.