John Masefield

John Masefield
John Edward Masefield, OMwas an English poet and writer, and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1930 until his death in 1967. He is remembered as the author of the classic children's novels The Midnight Folk and The Box of Delights, and poems, including "The Everlasting Mercy" and "Sea-Fever"...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth1 June 1878
truth men sea
Man with his burning soul Has but an hour of breath To build a ship of Truth In which his soul may sail- Sail on the sea of death. For death takes toll Of beauty, courage, youth, Of all but Truth.
pistols gangsters ought
It ought to have gangsters, and aeroplanes and a lot of automatic pistols.
people suffering tragedy
Commonplace people dislike tragedy because they dare not suffer and cannot exult.
running sea sailing
I must go down to the sea again For the call of the running tide It's a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied.
morning memories gone
But he has gone, A nation's memory and veneration, Among the radiant, ever venturing on, Somewhere, with morning, as such spirits will.
heart rivers london
The Thames is a wretched river after the Mersey and the ships are not like Liverpool ships and the docks are barren of beauty ... it is a beastly hole after Liverpool; for Liverpool is the town of my heart and I would rather sail a mudflat there than command a clipper out of London
common-sense mixtures uncommon
Poetry is a mixture of common sense, which not all have, with an uncommon sense, which very few have.
stars luck
The luck will alter and the star will rise.
mother father heart
From '41 to '51I was my folk's contrary son;I bit my father's hand right throughAnd broke my mother's heart in two.
sky blue heaven
Heaven to me's a fair blue stretch of sky, Earth's jest a dusty road.
strong battle defeated
Life's battle is a conquest for the strong; The meaning shows in the defeated thing.
mother dark men
In the dark room 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.
long-distance-relationship soul longing
The distant soul can shake the distant friend's soul and make the longing felt, over untold miles.
laughter laughing tragic
Life, a beauty chased by tragic laughter.