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John Masefield Quotes

John Edward Masefield was an English poet and writer, and the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1930 until 1967. Among his best known works are the children's novels The Midnight Folk and The Box of Delights, and the poems "The Everlasting Mercy" and "Sea-Fever". Wikipedia  

✵ 1. June 1878 – 12. May 1967
John Masefield photo

Works

The Everlasting Mercy
The Everlasting Mercy
John Masefield
John Masefield: 17   quotes 6   likes

Famous John Masefield Quotes

“Only the road and the dawn, the sun, the wind, and the rain,
And the watch fire under stars, and sleep, and the road again.”

John Masefield

“Life, a beauty chased by tragic laughter.”

John Masefield

Source: King Cole

“It's a warm wind, the west wind, full of birds' cries;
I never hear the west wind but tears are in my eyes.
For it comes from the west lands, the old brown hills,
And April's in the west wind, and daffodils.”

John Masefield

Salt-Water Ballads (1902), "The West Wind"

“The days that make us happy make us wise.”

John Masefield

“My blood did leap, my flesh did revel,
Saul Kane was tokened to the devil.”

John Masefield The Everlasting Mercy

The Everlasting Mercy (1919)

John Masefield Quotes

“Will you not come home, brother? you have been long away,
It's April, and blossom time, and white is the spray;
And bright is the sun, brother, and warm is the rain, -
Will you not come home, brother, home to us again?”

John Masefield

Salt-Water Ballads (1902), "The West Wind"

Home , Time , Sun

“From '41 to '51
I was my folk's contrary son;
I bit my father's hand right through
And broke my mother's heart in two.”

John Masefield The Everlasting Mercy

Opening lines
The Everlasting Mercy (1919)

Heart

“Oh some are fond of Spanish wine, and some are fond of French,
And some’ll swallow tay and stuff fit only for a wench;
But I’m for right Jamaica till I roll beneath the bench,
Says the old bold mate of Henry Morgan.”

John Masefield

Ballads and Poems (1910), "Captain Stratton's Fancy"

Wine

“I, who am dead, have ways of knowing
Of the crop of death that the quick are sowing.
I, who was Pompey, cry it aloud
From the dark of death, from the wind blowing.

I, who was Pompey, once was proud,
Now I lie in the sand without a shroud;
I cry to Caesar out of my pain,
"Caesar beware, your death is vowed."”

John Masefield

King Cole and Other Poems (1926), " The Rider at the Gate http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1251.html"

Death , Pain , Lie , Way

“And in the ghostly palm-trees the sleepy tune
Of the quiet voice calling me, the long low croon
Of the steady Trade Winds blowing.”

John Masefield

Salt-Water Ballads (1902), "Trade Winds"

Tree

“What have I done, or tried, or said
In thanks to that dear woman dead?
Men triumph over women still,
Men trample women's rights at will,
And man's lust roves the world untamed.
* * * *
O grave, keep shut lest I be shamed.”

John Masefield

Ballads and Poems (1910), " C. L. M. http://theotherpages.org/poems/masef01.html"

Women , Men , World , Dead

“What is this creature, Music, save the Art,
The Rhythm that the planets journey by?
The living Sun-Ray entering the heart,
Touching the Life with that which cannot die?”

John Masefield

" Where does the uttered Music go? http://www.williamwalton.net/works/choral/where_does_the_uttered_music_go.html" (1946)

Life , Art , Music , Sun

“In the dark womb where I began
My mother's life made me a man.
Through all the months of human birth
Her beauty fed my common earth.
I cannot see, nor breathe, nor stir,
But through the death of some of her.”

John Masefield

Ballads and Poems (1910), " C. L. M. http://theotherpages.org/poems/masef01.html"

Life , Death , Beauty , Birth

“Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir,
Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine,
With a cargo of ivory,
And apes and peacocks,
Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine.”

John Masefield

Salt-Water Ballads (1902), "Cargoes"

Home , Distant , Wine

“I must down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.”

John Masefield

The first line is often misquoted as "I must go down to the seas again." and this is the wording used in the song setting by John Ireland. I disagree with this last point. The poet himself was recorded reading this and he definitely says "seas". The first line should read, 'I must down ...' not, 'I must go down ...' The original version of 1902 reads 'I must down to the seas again'. In later versions, the author inserted the word 'go'.


Source: https://poemanalysis.com/sea-fever-john-masefield-poem-analysis/
Salt-Water Ballads (1902), "Sea-Fever"

Star , Sea

“The moon came white and ghostly as we laid the treasure down,
There was gear there’d make a beggarman as rich as Lima Town,
Copper charms and silver trinkets from the chests of Spanish crews,
Gold doubloons and double moidores, louis d’ors and portagues”

John Masefield

Ballads and Poems (1910), "Spanish Waters"

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