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Article: John Masefield: 1878-1967.(ENTHUSIASMS)
- Article from:
- Poetry
- Article date:
- March 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Modern Poetry Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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He was born the year British Imperial forces were squaring up to the Zulus and Tennyson's death was still fourteen years in the offing. He once met someone who had met Napoleon. He held a door for Lenin at the British Museum. He was deemed by Ramsay McDonald to be the natural successor to Robert Bridges, a voice-of-the-voiceless laureate for Britain's first labour prime minister. He lost his son in WWII. He died the year the Beatles released Sgt. Pepper and Norman Mailer was jailed after Vietnam protests in Washington. More than any poet I can think of, his life and work straddle two irreconcilable worlds.
Nowadays it is difficult to credit his fame. The ...