New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-04-14
Musefield Will
Lecture About
England at War
Will Make Fareweu Ap.
peurance Here Before
His Return to Europe

Before his return to England. John
Masefield has consented to make
farewell appearance in New York City,
and for this he has prepared an en-
tirely new lecture, ENGLAND and the
War" This lecture will tell of the
many things that England has done
in this war and of which most of US
know so little. Perhaps no man knows
quite so we'll what this has been as
John Masefeld. who from the very
outbreak of the war took q most keen
interest in it. Even before he started
for the fields of battle, he began help
ing his suffering fellow men by rails
ing money through the selling of
manuscripts and autographed books,
and by means of this money he was
able to bring Red Cross aid to many.
He had a field hospital of his own in
France and later went to the Oar
danelles, where, under shell fire, he did
heroic work. Since his last visit to
America he has been constantly atFthe
front and has produced second
heroic war book, "The Battle of the
Somme."
This modernist in verse, whose
poems are charged with democratic
feeling, presenting life in the most
realistic manner, is an adventurer. not
only in his art but in spirit. AS a lad
he scorned school, though loving
books. At fifteen he shipped before
the mast and for three years sailed
the Seven Seas, gaining a knowledge
of sea life and traditions and the heart
of sailor that he later embodied in
verse-verse that is filled with the
tang of the salt spray and full of the
vigor of youth.
Realizing at length that life on the
sea, fascinating as it was to him Che
confesses to being "horribly happy on
a boat'O, did not satisfy his intellect
ual cravings, he came ashore at New
York and determined to give his greed
for learning a chance in the country
where he had heard zone could become
almost anything one wished" After
weary days in which he trudged up
and down the city streets looking for
work he at length was forced to take
a job as "handy man" in Il saloon in
the now famous Bohemian quarter,
Greenwich Village. Here, for salary
of $50 month, the boy who was des-
tined to sing songs of matchless
beauty and stir the hearts of thou
sands with his poignant prose (who
can read "Gallipoli" dry-eyed? washed
beer glasses, helped spread the free
lunch country, swept out, and between
times cared for his employers baby
At $3.50 a. M, his tasks done, he would
slip to his garnet chamber and before
dropping off to sleep read for an hour
in the one book he possessed, "Mort
d'Arthur."
Ono epochal night, with seventy-five
cents to spare, he purchased copy
of Chaucer and read far into the night,
and then and there decided to become
poet. He returned to England, and
meeting w. B. Yeats and J. NJ. Synge
received inspiration to develop his
latent talent for verse and playwrit-
ing. When, In 1912, his narrative
poem, The Everlasting Mercy" was
awarded the Edmond de Polignac prize
Of $500 for being the best work of pure
literature of the year, the world turned
4 ready ear to the new singer. The
next year "The Tragedy of Nan" Gre
ated Juror when presented in Lon
don, and since then verse and drama
and matchless prose have flowed from
his. facile pen.
Mr.. Masefeld, by request, will read
/. from his own poems at the conclusion
of his lecture, which will be short in
order to allow time for the readings.