"brief spell behind the lines. John Masefield John Edward Masefield (; 1 June 1878 – 12 May 1967) 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"". Masefield was born in Ledbury in Herefordshire, to Caroline and George Masefield, a solicitor. His mother died giving birth to his sister when Masefield was only six, and he went to live with his aunt. His father died soon"
"to sea on a windjammer destined for New York City. However, the urge to become a writer and the hopelessness of life as a sailor overtook him, and in New York, he deserted ship. He lived as a vagrant for several months, drifting between odd jobs, eventually finding work as an assistant to a bar keeper, before finally returning to New York City. Sometime around Christmas 1895, Masefield read the December edition of ""Truth"", a New York periodical, which contained the poem ""The Piper of Arll"" by Duncan Campbell Scott. Ten years later, Masefield wrote to Scott to tell him"
"Salt-Water Poems and Ballads Salt-Water Poems and Ballads is a book of poetry on themes of seafaring and maritime history by John Masefield. It was first published in 1916 by Macmillan, with illustrations by Charles Pears. Many of the poems had been published in Masefield's earlier collections, ""Salt-Water Ballads"" (1902), ""Ballads"" (1903) and ""Ballads and Poems"" (1910). They were included in ""The Collected Poems of John Masefield"" published by Heinemann in 1923. ""Salt-Water Poems and Ballads"" includes ""Sea-Fever"" and ""Cargoes"", two of Masefield's best known poems. ""Sea-Fever"" first appeared in ""Salt-Water Ballads"" – Masefield's first volume of poetry published in"
"Salt-Water Poems and Ballads Salt-Water Poems and Ballads is a book of poetry on themes of seafaring and maritime history by John Masefield. It was first published in 1916 by Macmillan, with illustrations by Charles Pears. Many of the poems had been published in Masefield's earlier collections, ""Salt-Water Ballads"" (1902), ""Ballads"" (1903) and ""Ballads and Poems"" (1910). They were included in ""The Collected Poems of John Masefield"" published by Heinemann in 1923. ""Salt-Water Poems and Ballads"" includes ""Sea-Fever"" and ""Cargoes"", two of Masefield's best known poems. ""Sea-Fever"" first appeared in ""Salt-Water Ballads"" – Masefield's first volume of poetry published in"
"that he was to become a writer and story teller himself. In 1894, Masefield boarded the ""Gilcruix"", destined for Chile – this first voyage bringing him the experience of sea sickness. He recorded his experiences while sailing through the extreme weather, his journal entries reflecting a delight in seeing flying fish, porpoises, and birds, and was awed by the beauty of nature, including a rare sighting of a nocturnal rainbow on his voyage. On reaching Chile, Masefield suffered from sunstroke and was hospitalised. He eventually returned home to England as a passenger aboard a steam ship. In 1895, Masefield returned"
"The Lonely (British Sea Power song) ""The Lonely"" is a song by British Sea Power. The song was the group's third single and their second on Rough Trade. It was their first single to garner much press coverage and resulted in a pleasing chart position. Unusually, the nominal a-side actually features as the flipside on both versions. The main position is taken by ""The Spirit of St. Louis"", a tale of Charles Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic. This is still regularly performed live despite it only appearing on this release. The title track was written as a tribute to Geoff"
"He had titled the poem ""Ode to the Death Angel""<poem> Oh here you come again Old chilly death of Ol' To plot out life And test immortal soul I saw you fall against the raging sea I cheated you then and now you'll not catch me I know your face It's known in every race Your speed is fast And along the way Your shadow you cast High in the sky You thought you had me then I landed safely But here you are again I see you paused upon that forward pew When you think I'm asleep I'm watching"
"crimes, responding with a quote from Everlasting Mercy: The Everlasting Mercy The Everlasting Mercy is a poem by John Masefield, the UK's second longest-serving poet laureate. It was published in 1911, and is styled as the confession of a man who has turned from sin to Christianity. The work that first made Masefield famous, it shocked early 20th century British sensibilities with its direct, honest, and therefore often harsh language, as the life of protagonist violent, drunken womanizer Saul Kane is laid out in detail. In the third episode of the series Peter Gunn, ""The Vicious Dog"", the last line"
"Der Untergang der Titanic Der Untergang der Titanic, or, in English, The Sinking of the Titanic, is an epic and allegorical poem by the German poet Hans Magnus Enzensberger, first published by Suhrkamp Verlag in 1978. The poem is primarily about the failure of Western civilization as an enterprise, a point which Enzensberger makes explicitly in the passage about Icelanders, who, when their properties are threatened by volcanic lava flows, endeavour to stem the inexorable tide with hoses: Similarities and parallels have been frequently drawn between this poem and T. S. Eliot's ""The Waste Land"", not only in terms of"
"The Seafarer (poem) The Seafarer is an Old English poem giving a first-person account of a man alone on the sea. The poem consists of 124 lines, followed by the single word ""Amen"" and is recorded only at folios 81 verso - 83 recto of the Exeter Book, one of the four surviving manuscripts of Old English poetry. It has most often, though not always, been categorised as an elegy, a poetic genre commonly assigned to a particular group of Old English poems that reflect on spiritual and earthly melancholy. Much scholarship suggests that the poem is told from the"
"first collected works, ""Salt-Water Ballads"" (1902) was published, the poem ""Sea-Fever"" appearing in this book. Masefield then wrote the novels, ""Captain Margaret"" (1908) and ""Multitude and Solitude"" (1909). In 1911, after a long drought of poem writing, he composed ""The Everlasting Mercy"", the first of his narrative poems, and within the next year had produced two more, ""The Widow in the Bye Street"" and ""Dauber"". As a result, he became widely known to the public and was praised by the critics; in 1912, he was awarded the annual Edmond de Polignac prize. When World War I began, although old enough"
"and his ashes placed in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. Later, the following verse was discovered, written by Masefield, addressed to his ""Heirs, Administrators, and Assigns"": The Masefield Centre at Warwick School, which Masefield attended, and a high school in Ledbury, Herefordshire, have been named in his honour. In 1977, Folkways Records released an album of his poetry, including some read by Masefield himself. In addition to the commission for Queen Alexandra's Memorial Ode with music by Elgar, many of Masefield's short poems were set as art songs by British composers of the time. Best known by far is John"
"Down to a Sunless Sea David Graham's Down to a Sunless Sea (1979) is a post-apocalyptic novel about a planeload of people during and after a short nuclear war, set in a near-future world where the USA is critically short of oil. The title of the book is taken from a line of the poem ""Kubla Khan"" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Lin Carter wrote a fantasy novel with the same title (), also derived from the same Coleridge poem. The story is told in the first person by Jonah Scott, a British pilot for the fictional airline Air Britain who"
"The Everlasting Mercy The Everlasting Mercy is a poem by John Masefield, the UK's second longest-serving poet laureate. It was published in 1911, and is styled as the confession of a man who has turned from sin to Christianity. The work that first made Masefield famous, it shocked early 20th century British sensibilities with its direct, honest, and therefore often harsh language, as the life of protagonist violent, drunken womanizer Saul Kane is laid out in detail. In the third episode of the series Peter Gunn, ""The Vicious Dog"", the last line is the antagonist, asked why he'd committed the"
"published under another name in Southey's ""Annual Anthology"". A later revised edition was included in ""Sibylline Leaves"", Coleridge's 1817 collection of poems. Within the verse, Coleridge seeks to discover the environment that his friends are exploring because he is unable to join them. The poem links the lime-tree bower to the Quantocks where the Wordsworths, Lamb and Fricker were out walking. Although he is separated from them, the poet connects to his distant friends and they are able to share in a common view on life. The poem describes Coleridge's loneliness and solitude throughout, yet he is glad that his"
"Laureate John Masefield (1878–1967), as the greatest loss of all the poets killed during the war. On 11 November 1985, Sorley was among 16 Great War poets commemorated on a slate stone unveiled in Westminster Abbey's Poet's Corner. The inscription on the stone was written by Wilfred Owen. It reads: ""My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity."" ""It Is Easy To Be Dead"" by Neil McPherson, a play on his life, based on his poetry and letters, was presented at the Finborough Theatre, London, and subsequently at Trafalgar Studios, London, in 2016"
"to sailors who thought it was a naval songbook. Coleridge made several modifications to the poem over the years. In the second edition of ""Lyrical Ballads"", published in 1800, he replaced many of the archaic words. The poem may have been inspired by James Cook's second voyage of exploration (1772–1775) of the South Seas and the Pacific Ocean; Coleridge's tutor, William Wales, was the astronomer on Cook's flagship and had a strong relationship with Cook. On this second voyage Cook crossed three times into the Antarctic Circle to determine whether the fabled great southern continent existed. Critics have also suggested"
"After an unhappy education at the King's School in Warwick (now known as Warwick School), where he was a boarder between 1888 and 1891, he left to board , both to train for a life at sea, and to break his addiction to reading, of which his aunt thought little. He spent several years aboard this ship and found that he could spend much of his time reading and writing. It was aboard the Conway that Masefield's love for story-telling grew. While on the ship, he listened to the stories told about sea lore. He continued to read, and felt"
"Masefield turned away from the long poem and back to the novel, and from 1924 till the start of World War II published 12 novels, which vary from stories of the sea (""The Bird of Dawning"", ""Victorious Troy"") to social novels about modern England (""The Hawbucks"", ""The Square Peg""), and from tales of an imaginary land in Central America (""Sard Harker"", ""Odtaa"") to fantasies for children (""The Midnight Folk"", ""The Box of Delights""). This variety in genre testifies most impressively to the breadth of his imagination, though it probably reduced his sales (which remained very respectable, however), since most readers"
"Go to Sea Once More ""Go to Sea Once More"" is a sea shanty about a sailor (Jack Tarr or Jack Wrack) who once ashore, gets very drunk and loses all his clothing and hard-earned money when a prostitute steals them. Though he has sworn to never work at sea again, this situation forces him to accept a position on a whaling ship bound for the Arctic Sea, having to endure terrible conditions such as the freezing cold. The song urges sailors to avoid strong drink and the hard lifestyle that comes with it. The exact origins of the song"
"forced to move back to America due to war in Britain just a year before the poem was written. Bearing this in mind, the poem can be read as a critique as to how warfare can force innocent, young boys to leave their childhood behind, and ultimately be destroyed by circumstances created by the 'responsible' adult. The title of the poem is an allusion to William Shakespeare's tragedy ""Macbeth"" (""Out, out, brief candle ..."" in the Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow soliloquy). Macbeth is shocked to hear of his wife's death and comments on the brevity of life. It refers"
"of Rod Serling's television series ""Night Gallery"" pays homage to the poem in an episode entitled ""Lone Survivor."" In it the RMS ""Lusitania"" picks up a lone survivor drifting in a lifeboat from the RMS ""Titanic"", despite the great ship having sunk three years before. The man tells them he escaped the Titanic by dressing as a woman and as a result of his selfish act he must forever drift from doomed ship to doomed ship. The man warns the crew of the Lusitania that the ship will be torpedoed. They do not believe him until the Lusitania is hit"
"tumultuously, and he ran weeping down to the sea in the moonlight as the bird's call unlocked the questions in his own heart. Knowing that he will never escape the unknown want aroused in him, 'the sweet hell within', he begs for some word more of understanding. The unhurrying sea Lisp'd to me the low and delicious word death,And again death, death, death, deathHissing melodious, neither like the bird nor like my arous'd child's heart,But edging near as privately for me rustling at my feet,Creeping thence steadily up to my ears and laving me softly all over,Death, death, death, death,"
"Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven ""Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven"" is a short story written by American writer Mark Twain. It first appeared in print in ""Harper's Magazine"" in December 1907 and January 1908, and was published in book form with some revisions in 1909. This was the last story published by Twain during his life. The story follows Captain Elias Stormfield on his extremely long cosmic journey to heaven; his accidental misplacement; his short-lived interest in singing and playing the harp (generated by his preconceptions of heaven); and the obsession of souls with the ""celebrities"" of heaven, like Adam"
"a world without women. Bigelow was heart-broken when George Cabot Lodge, the young poet he had chosen as his spiritual son to inherit his island estate, died there at the age of thirty-five. Lodge's 1906 poem ""Tuckanuck"" celebrates the island as a place ""to dream an Eastern dream, starred by the cry/ of sea-birds..."" A more exuberant letter from Lodge to Bigelow anticipating a trip to the island reads ""kind Sir! Surf Sir! And sun, Sir! And Nakedness! -Oh Lord! How I want to get my clothes off-alone in natural solitudes."" The line between homosexuality and homoeroticism blurs in Bigelow's"
"Burned are their homes, exile and death Scatter the loyal men; Yet ere the sword cool in the sheath Charlie will come again.</poem> Robert Louis Stevenson's 1892 poem, which has been sung to the tune, has the following text: <poem>[Chorus:] Sing me a song of a lad that is gone, Say, could that lad be I? Merry of soul he sailed on a day Over the sea to Skye. Mull was astern, on the port, Eigg on the starboard bow; Glory of youth glowed in his soul; Where is that glory now? [Chorus] Give me again all that was there,"
"Sailing Westward ""Sailing Westward"" is a poem written by Alfred Noyes, and set to music by the English composer Edward Elgar. It was one of the songs (collectively known as the """"Pageant of Empire"""") written to be performed in the ""Pageant of Empire"" at the British Empire Exhibition, Wembley Park, on 21 July 1924. The song descriptively commemorates the adventurous English sea-captains who sailed to """"... chase the setting sun ... westward, thro' the thund'ring gales"""". Elgar used the same music for four other songs in the set: """"The Islands"""", """"Gloriana"""" (Queen Elizabeth I), """"The Cape of Good Hope"""" (for"
"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud ""I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud"" (also commonly known as ""Daffodils"") is a lyric poem by William Wordsworth. It is Wordsworth's most famous work. The poem was inspired by an event on 15 April 1802, in which Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy came across a ""long belt"" of daffodils. Written some time between 1804 and 1807 (in 1804 by Wordsworth's own account), it was first published in 1807 in ""Poems in Two Volumes"", and a revised version was published in 1815. In a poll conducted in 1995 by the BBC Radio 4 ""Bookworm"" programme"
"Masefield, who remained in office until his death in 1967. The only person to hold the office for a longer period was Alfred, Lord Tennyson. On his appointment ""The Times"" newspaper said of him: ""... his poetry could touch to beauty the plain speech of everyday life"". Although the requirements of Poet Laureate had changed, and those in the office were rarely required to write verse for special occasions, Masefield took his appointment seriously and produced a large quantity of verse. Poems composed in his official capacity were sent to ""The Times"". Masefield's modesty was shown by inclusion of a"
"Songs from the Motherland and the Diaspora"". According to Kelani, the title of Husain’s poem translates literally as 'Thoughts and Echoes', but she 'chose the English title to reflect my own yearning, and probably that of Husain, for freedom from our personal and collective sense of siege.' The sky cried in rain, giving solace to the burnt-out man; It made him more impassioned. Can one drowning in the open sea ask for a helping hand from the sky? Does he want rain to freeze his body and add to his torments? No! I ask the sky. Stop your tears! This"
"The Leaving of Liverpool ""(The) Leaving of Liverpool"", (Roud 9435), also known as ""Fare Thee Well, My Own True Love"", is a folksong. Folklorists classify it as a lyric lament, and it was also used as a sea shanty, especially at the capstan. It is very well known in Britain, Ireland, and America, despite the fact that it was collected only twice, from the Americans Richard Maitland and Captain Patrick Tayluer. It was collected from both singers by William Main Doerflinger, an American folksong collector particularly associated with sea songs, in New York. The song's narrator laments his long sailing"
"father as she hears the surf beating on the shore, then prays to Christ to calm the seas. The ship crashes onto the reef of Norman's Woe and sinks; the next morning a horrified fisherman finds the daughter's body, still tied to the mast and drifting in the surf. The poem ends with a prayer that all be spared such a fate ""on the reef of Norman's Woe."" The poem was published in the ""New World"", edited by Park Benjamin, which appeared on January 10, 1840. Longfellow was paid $25 for it, equivalent to $654 in 2015. Longfellow combined fact"
"ODTAA ODTAA (1926) by John Masefield (1878–1967) is an adventure novel first published in February 1926. The letters in its title stand for ""One Damn Thing After Another"". It opens with establishing narrative describing the fictional nation of Santa Barbara, which ""lies far to leeward of the Sugar States, is at the angle of the continent [of South America], with two coasts, one facing to the north, the other east. The city of Santa Barbara is in a bay at the angle where these two coasts trend one from each other."" The novel is set prior to the events described"