I want to find out which poet wrote Reynards Last Run?

Question

I read it at school many years ago it is a poem about the last run a fox made when it was being chased by hounds.

Answer 1

John Masefield wrote the long poem, Reynard the Fox. Perhaps this is the one?

Try the website: http://www.huntfacts.com/RTF_Foreword.htm

Some writers call the second part of this poem Reynard's Last Run.

Answer 2

John Masefield's wrote Reynard's Last Run

Answer 3

Reynard the Fox is probably the greatest of all hunting poems and a classic of English narrative verse. It was written by John Masefield and first published in a volume with illustrations by G D Armour, by Heinemann in 1921. In a letter about the poem to A Henry Higginson MFH, John Masefield wrote:

“After all, poetry is not a written record of what one does. Were it so, Shakespeare would have been hanged for murder and Sophocles for incest. Poetry is the spiritual enjoyment of what one understands. I wrote my tale of the fox because I felt deeply the beauty and the life of hunting”

John Masefield was born in Ledbury in 1878 and was appointed English Poet Laureate in succession to Robert Bridges in 1930. He continued in the post until his death in 1967. He was succeeded (17 years and two incumbents - CD Lewis and Sir John Betjeman - later) by Ted Hughes who likewise had a keen understanding and appreciation of hunting .

The poem tells the story of a day’s mounted fox hunting. Part one introduces all the participants as they arrive for the meet at the **** & Pye Inn. Part two is about the hunt itself and is told, in large part, from the point of view of the hunted fox.

All characters are fictitious but place names and dialects/accents bear a striking resemblance to his native Herefordshire.

The full poem contains over 20,000 words. There's a complete Dutch version of it on the internet, but who can read Dutch these days?

Finally, after much Googling..

http://www.btinternet.com/~countryside.webservice/masefield.htm

Answer 4

John Masefield - you may want to check out Julian Cope's song, Reynard the Fox, as well!