Selected Poems

John Edward Masefield, OM, (1878-1967) was an English poet, writer, and Poet Laureate from 1930 until his death. He is remembered as the author of the classic children's novels The Midnight Folk and The Box of Delights. By the age of 24, Masefield's poems were being published in periodicals and his first collected works, Salt-Water Ballads was published in 1902. Masefield then wrote two novels, Captain Margaret (1908) and Multitude and Solitude (1909). In 1911, after a long drought of poem writing, he composed The Everlasting Mercy (1911). When World War I began Masefield went to the Western Front as a medical orderly, later publishing his own account of his experiences. In 1921, Masefield received an Honorary Doctorate of Literature from Oxford University. He also wrote a very large number of dramatic pieces. Most of his dramas were based on themes of Christianity. Amongst his other works are Martin Hyde: The Duke's Messenger (1910), Jim Davis (1911) and Right Royal (1920).