John Masefield/The Most Satisfying Poet
"THE MOST SATISFYING POET"
By John Farrar
Upon the publication of the complete edition of his poems and plays, I find little new to say about John Masefield. He seems to me by far the most satisfying poet of our time. In its final essence, greatness in poetry, as far as current poets are concerned, is certainly a matter of personal preference. There are those who find, in some of Masefield, swinging rhythms that mark him for them as "popular." Others belittle him on other grounds. The fact remains that for beauty of form and line, originality of conception, serenity of thought, John Masefield is supreme. He is a more vital poet than Hardy, a more thoughtful poet than Kipling, a more virile poet than Yeats. His great lines are many, and there are many great and memorable poems. As a dramatist, he possesses a quiet depth that is perhaps the mark also of the great poet rather than the dramatic genius;
yet there are few finer modern plays than The Tragedy of nan.—The Bookman
