The Thames is a wretched river after the Mersey and the ships are not like Liverpool ships and the docks are barren of beauty ... it is a beastly hole after Liverpool; for Liverpool is the town of my heart and I would rather sail a mudflat there than command a clipper out of London
John MasefieldIt is too maddening. I've got to fly off, right now, to some devilish navy yard, 3 hours in a seasick steamer, & after being heartily sick, I'll have to speak 3 times, & then be sick coming home. Still, who would not be sick for England?
John MasefieldOnly the road and the dawn, the sun, the wind, and the rain, And the watch fire under stars, and sleep, and the road again.
John MasefieldQuinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir, Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine, With a cargo of ivory, And apes and peacocks, Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine.
John MasefieldSince the printing press came into being, poetry has ceased to be the delight of the whole community of man; it has become the amusement and delight of the few.
John MasefieldMan's body is faulty, his mind untrustworthy, but his imagination has made him remarkable.
John MasefieldIn the dark room where I began My mother's life made me a man. Through all the months of human birth Her beauty fed my common earth. I cannot see, nor breathe, nor stir, But through the death of some of her.
John MasefieldI hold that when a person dies / His soul returns again to earth; / Arrayed in some new flesh disguise / Another mother gives him birth / With sturdier limbs and brighter brain.
John MasefieldTo most of us the future seems unsure. But then it always has been; and we who have seen great changes must have great hopes.
John MasefieldI must go down to the sea again For the call of the running tide It's a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied.
John MasefieldBut he has gone, A nation's memory and veneration, Among the radiant, ever venturing on, Somewhere, with morning, as such spirits will.
John MasefieldThe distant soul can shake the distant friend's soul and make the longing felt, over untold miles.
John MasefieldOnce in a century a man may be ruined or made insufferable by praise. But surely once in a minute something generous dies for want of it.
John MasefieldPeople who leave their own time out of their work cannot be surprised if their time fails to find them interesting.
John MasefieldOff Cape Horn there are but two kinds of weather, neither one of them a pleasant kind.
John MasefieldPoetry is a mixture of common sense, which not all have, with an uncommon sense, which very few have.
John MasefieldI have seen dawn and sunset on moors and windy hills Coming in solemn beauty like slow old tunes of Spain.
John MasefieldThere are few earthly things more beautiful than a university a place where those who hate ignorance may strive to know, where those who perceive truth may strive to make others see.
John MasefieldSo death obscures your gentle form, So memory strives to make the darkness bright; And, in that heap of rocks, your body lies, Part of the island till the planet ends, My gentle comrade, beautiful and wise, Part of this crag this bitter surge offends, While I, who pass, a little obscure thing, War with this force, and breathe, and am its king.
John MasefieldAnd he who gives a child a treat Makes joy-bells ring in Heaven's street, And he who gives a child a home Builds palaces in Kingdom come, And she who gives a baby birth Brings Saviour Christ again to Earth.
John MasefieldHumans consist of body, mind and imagination. Our bodies are faulty, our minds untrustworthy, but our imagination has made us remarkable.
John Masefield