I haven’t been in the university library much lately so my “poetry serendipity” project has slowed down. The last book I brought home for it was a collection by Wendy Cope inspired by coming across “Being Boring” some other way and wondering if I’d like others of hers as much. I didn’t! But Liz reminded me recently of the “Poem A Day” program from the Academy of American Poets so I signed up for it again and it has been another good means of poetic happenstance. I do delete a lot of the ones that show up in my inbox pretty quickly, but others do catch my attention, and a few really linger, most recently John Masefield’s “On Growing Old,” which opens “Be with me, Beauty, for the fire is dying,” and ends like this:
Only, as in the jostling in the Strand,
Where the mob thrusts or loiters or is loud,
The beggar with the saucer in his hand
Asks only a penny from the passing crowd,
So, from this glittering world with all its fashion,
Its fire, and play of men, its stir, its march,
Let me have wisdom, Beauty, wisdom and passion,
Bread to the soul, rain where the summers parch.
Give me but these, and, though the darkness close,
Even the night will blossom as the rose.
The email with the poem describes this as one of Masefield’s best known poems, but it was unknown to me before now, and Masefield more generally is a poet I know nothing about, except for recognizing his name–in spite of what was clearly a rich and prolific life. Poets.org has only one other of his poems posted, so next time I’m in the library I will be more purposeful and hunt up a collection of them.
Novel Readings 
Masefield’s most famous poem is Sea Fever https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/54932/sea-fever-56d235e0d871e
I first encountered it as a child in 101 Famous Poems.
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That’s the only other one at the poets.org site and after a couple of hours browsing through the volumes of his poetry I brought home from the library yesterday, I think I can see why these are the two. I didn’t trip over a single other one that engaged me, although that’s partly because I have a short attention span for poetry and he seems to write a lot of long narrative or dramatic poems. 🙂
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Hello Rohan,
I hope this option works as I really cannot deal today with WordPressâs complicated system of posting comments for people who arenât permanently logged into every site they ever visit!
The comment:
Thank you! Iâve never encountered that poem and now will go look it up; the only Masefield I know for certain Iâve read is âSea Feverâ, a staple of literature classes when I was in grade school and dinosaurs roamed the earth, and quoted in at least one original-series Star Trek episode (a series where connections were often drawn between space travel and seafaring).
End comment!
Thanks so much,
Gisèle
>
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I know: WP can be very annoying! But it did work. When I read “Sea Fever” I realized I had know its opening lines for a long time in that way you hang on to bits of verse, but with no idea whose they were or from what poem.
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Wendy Cope is meant to be very popular, isn’t she? Before this one, I have only come across one poem of hers I like: The Orange.
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Yes, I think she is. My not getting hooked by a poet is a very bad measure of their quality given how random and also idiosyncratic my poetry reading usually is. 🙂
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