MASEFIELD, JOHN, O.M. ), British poet and novelist, was born in Ledbury and spent his youth in many coun tries and occupations, serving before the mast at sea, and earning a living as best he could in America. The activity of these years was reflected in his work from the first, as Salt-Water Ballads (1902) or Ballads (1903) show. His early novels, Jim Davis (pp I), Captain Margaret (1908) and Multitude and Solitude (5909), were excellent tales of action and spirit, but he found his natural expression in narrative poetry and drama. The Ever lasting Mercy made something of a sensation in 1911 ; it was followed quickly by The Widow in the Bye Street (1912) ; Dauber (1913) ; and The Daffodil Fields (1913), all narrative poems in a key of stern realism. Meantime Masefield had written two plays, The Tragedy of Nan (1909) and Pompey the Great (1910), the first allied in subject and setting to his long poems of village life, the second historical in theme. Lollingdon Downs (1917) in
cluded a noteworthy sonnet sequence, and Reynard the Fox (1919) proved one of the most successful of his verse narratives. Here the country life that he knows so well is reflected faithfully and vividly, without the somewhat excessive gloom of Nan and the Everlasting Mercy. The gradual awakening of the village on the morning of the meet, followed by the gathering of the hunt, the stir and movement of horses and hounds, make a picture among the best things he has ever done. Right Royal (1920), a similar poem, is less successful. Later work includes A King's Daughter, a verse tragedy (1923) ; Sard Harker, a novel (1924) ; The Trial of Jesus, a play (1925) ; Odtaa (1926) and The Haw bucks (1929), novels. He published some able prose War sketches in Gallipoli (1916) and The Old Front Line (1917). He was made poet laureate in May, 1930, as successor of Robert Bridges.