ABSTRACT
The poet laureate's sixty years of creative writing have certain qualities of epic and spiritual significance elsewhere unmatched. His style, preferring direct narrative to 'discussion of states of mind and soul', is lucid: what cannot be said simply will not be said at all. Masefield writes from the heart of human and animal creation. Knowing man's animal instincts and stern destiny, he can forgive much, as in this from Eive and Kicking Ned: Mind, he was a cruel, terrible savage who had murdered two men, one of them in cold blood. Masefield has left little social propaganda, and he prefers insight to morals. Nevertheless, his admiration for the bravery of simple men and his identification with their lot do them honours unknown to propaganda. Though seldom a moralist, Masefield has what might be called a 'super-morality' and a 'super-sociology' concerned with what is basic, elemental, and universal.
