[4] "_It's a long way to Tipperary_," the most popular song of the
Allied armies during the World's War.
_Henry Newbolt_
Henry Newbolt was born at Bilston in 1862. His early work was frankly
imitative of Tennyson; he even attempted to add to the Arthurian
legends with a drama in blank verse entitled _Mordred_ (1895). It was
not until he wrote his sea-ballads that he struck his own note. With
the publication of _Admirals All_ (1897) his fame was widespread. The
popularity of his lines was due not so much to the subject-matter of
Newbolt's verse as to the breeziness of his music, the solid beat of
rhythm, the vigorous swing of his stanzas.
In 1898 Newbolt published _The Island Race_, which contains about
thirty more of his buoyant songs of the sea. Besides being a poet,
Newbolt has written many essays and his critical volume, _A New Study
of English Poetry_ (1917), is a collection of articles that are both
analytical and alive.