O lovely lily clean, O lily springing green, O lily…

What am I, Life? A thing of watery salt Held in cohesion by unresting cells, Which work they know not why, which never halt,…

— John Masefield

Men in a ship are always looking up, and men ashore are usually looking down.

— John Masefield

I have seen dawn and sunset on moors and windy hills Coming in solemn beauty like slow old tunes of Spain.

— John Masefield

I must go down to the sea again For the call of the running tide It's a wild call and a clear call that…

— John Masefield

“(...) It,s hard not to be able. There, look there!/ I cannot get the movement nor the light;/Sometimes it almost makes a man despair/To…

— John Masefield

Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir, Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine, With a cargo of ivory, And apes and peacocks, Sandalwood, cedarwood,…

— John Masefield

Only the road and the dawn, the sun, the wind, and the rain, And the watch fire under stars, and sleep, and the road…

— John Masefield

Life's battle is a conquest for the strong; The meaning shows in the defeated thing.

— John Masefield

Since the printing press came into being, poetry has ceased to be the delight of the whole community of man; it has become the…

— John Masefield

When the last sea is sailed and last shallow charted, When the last field is reaped and the last harvest stored, When the last…

— John Masefield

“Most roads lead men homewards, My road leads forth.”

— John Masefield

It's a warm wind, the west wind, full of birds' cries.

— John Masefield

When Life knocks at the door no one can wait, When Death makes his arrest we have to go.

— John Masefield

God dropped a spark down into everyone, And if we find and fan it to a blaze, It'll spring up and glow, like--like the…

— John Masefield

State are not made, nor patched; they grow; Grow slow through centuries of pain, And grow correctly in the main; But only grow by…

— John Masefield