This book, Masefield's first, focuses on the lure of the sea and the wonder of the vessels that sail it, subjects that greatly delighted the poet; he had worked on a ship from age 13. It brought Masefield instant recognition. He immediately followed it with a number of other books of verse, and in 1930 would be named poet laureate. The "pungent, rhythmical poems of the sea" in these pages, however, especially "Sea-Fever" remain his best-known works.