John Masefield was England's Poet Laureate when I sat on the dunce's stool <br />In the class room by the road to Clara in Millstreet's old Primary School <br />One of the last great rhyme men of literature to the Reaper he has long gone <br />But long poems such as Reynard the Fox and The Everlasting Mercy and Dauber as testimony to his greatness live on. <br /> <br />John Masefield was a poet of all English speaking people and not for the English alone <br />His legacy of words proof of his genius he does share the literary throne <br />With all of his famous predecessors as a poet he was a true great <br />With the great poets of the English language John Masefield is one who does rate. <br /> <br />John Masefield was born in Ledbury and at a young age he went off to sea <br />The spirit of adventure was in him and a young man of the World was he <br />Perhaps his inspiration for Dauber a young crew hand and artist who died tragically <br />The poet of the English speaking masses embraced all of humanity. <br /> <br />At Toolangi Victoria in the backyard of the great poet C J Dennis John Masefield once planted a tree <br />A tree that has grown to an adult that I felt quite privileged to see <br />Two poets long dead though not forgotten since they were the greats of their time <br />And why not we honour and praise them these marvellous old wordsmiths of rhyme. <br /> <br />John Masefield was England's Poet Laureate when I was a Primary school going boy <br />His poems were not for the select few his poems were for all to enjoy <br />The Widow in the By Street and The Daffodil Fields just two of his great long poems since Masefield he penned many more <br />And his poems of the sea Saltwater Ballads are read far from England's green shore.<br /><br />Francis Duggan<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/john-masefield-was-england-s-poet-laureate/
