John Masefield Poet

I’ve always loved Masefield’s lyrics about the Sea.  His most famous poem is probably Sea Fever...

“I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,”

I think I first heard it in an episode of Star Trek... And it epitomised the romance of ships, especially sailing ships.

Masefield was born in England in 1878 and had a happy childhood in the country, until his parents died. After an unhappy period at school, he went to HMS Conway In Liverpool, to train as a sailor.   He loved the sea, in some ways but found that life on board ship was hard work and not as romantic as he had hoped....  He was often cold and miserable, and lonely.  
After a few years at sea, he developed health problems, while abroad and gave up the life.   He went to America, where he lived as something of a drifter, doing odd jobs.   He got a steady job in Yonkers, near New York in the late 1890s, and worked in a carpet factory.  He had time to read, and decided to become a writer.

 In 1897, he came back to England, and started to write seriously. In  London, he became friends with William Butler Yeats, who was then a successful poet and who was kind to younger writers.  He also met his future wife, Constance, who was several years his senior and form a well to do Anglo Irish family.  She was a highly intelligent woman, who had gone to college and was working as a teacher. 

Masefield was eager to earn his own living, as a poet... but for a time he was not earning much and had to rely on his wife.  They had 2 children, Judith and Lewis, and within a few years, his poems were increasingly successful.

His poems included lyrics about the sea, and a narrative poem called “Everlasting Mercy”, about a reformed sinner…

During World war One, Masefield worked in a hospital in France for a time as he was too old for active service.  He then did lecture tours to America, and after the war, moved to the country.  One of his famous poems is Reynard the Fox and he wrote a cycle of Arthurian poems.

He wrote novels in the 1920s and eventually became Poet Laureate, although he was generally speaking a very simple man who enjoyed country life, had few servants and did not hanker after riches.  His marriage was generally happy, though he did have romantic friendships with other women, mostly conducted by letter.   His wife died in 1960, around the age of 90, and he himself died in 1967.