John Masefield, 1878-1967: Selected Poems [Paperback]

Donald Stanford (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 085635502X | ISBN-13: 978-0856355028 | Publication Date: June 1985

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

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

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.

Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: Carcanet Pr (June 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 085635502X
• ISBN-13: 978-0856355028
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,462,741 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I MUST GO DOWN TO THE SEA AGAIN AND AGAIN, November 30, 2000

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B.D. (Rancho San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: John Masefield, 1878-1967: Selected Poems (Paperback)

Fascinating compilation by one of the 20th Century's most memorable poets (British Poet Laureate from 1930-67). Testifies to the rugged durability of his evocative poetic gift. Especially nice about this volume are the range and depth of Masefield's best poetry, which spurred me to begin re-reading him and other great poets of his day (Thomas Hardy, W.B.Yeats, Frost,Walter de la Mare, Edwin Arlington Robinson, etc.). Most of the best output is early in his career (Salt Water Ballads, Dauber, Lollingdon Downs,Everlasting Mercy), the poem Sea Fever being the most representative of his genius for making nature come alive in mind and spirit. To summarize Masefield's poetic legacy: 'He writes as freshly as possible bringing us back to a marvel of sustained versecraft, leaping gaps of time and tide, reminding us of the immediacy of nature, especially tales of the open sea with a vitality and purity of resonance still affecting audiences in the 21st Century. If you have a love of the Sea, this book and Masefield's poems will whisk you there for a journey. Bon Voyage!

One of Masefield's last poems (excerpt): Musicians, painters, poets of when/Who made the world more lovely then/The story-tellers beyond price,/Bringing the news from Paradise/Those from whose handiwork we see/Horizons in eternity.

Now that my roving days are over,/And all my frontiers stop at Dover/I think of what Life used to mean/When all these artists trod the scene/And Life was in myself with them/In Troy, in Greece, and Bethlehem.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars John Masefield Selected Poems, February 8, 2000

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tal (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: John Masefield, 1878-1967: Selected Poems (Paperback)

This is the perfect book for anyone interested in this poet's work. It has a variety of his nautical and arthurian poems. His poems about the sea and England are beautiful and full of rich textures. It is one of my personal favorites.