“In ‘Right Royal’ Mr Masefield celebrates in a narrative poem the story of a horse-race. The story of Mr Masefield’s poem is that of a horse with great points and virtues, for speed and endurance, but very undependable, having lost a number of races by going panicky from fear. He was bought by Charles Cothill, who believed that all his potential qualities as a winner could be developed. Cothill backed his own horse to the extent of all his possessions, which created a crisis in his love for the woman he hoped to marry. If he lost, his love was lost. In fact, it was win all or lose all.”—Boston Transcript
“It will be acknowledged that the preliminaries of the race, the discussions in the stables, the professional tips and omens, the catalogue of the entries, are sandy soil for the growth of poetry. The best of the poem has no relation to the worst; the worst might have been sacrificed. Even in the best are imperfections, but we have learnt to swallow Mr Masefield’s longer poems without straining at the gnats.” E. B.
+ − Ath p692 N 19 ’20 600w + Booklist 17:146 Ja ’21
“It is growing very trite to say that Mr Masefield does this thing or that thing better than any contemporary poet. He does the things that nobody else does and is thus in competition with himself. ‘Right Royal’ may not be as fine a poem as ‘Enslaved,’ but no one can dispute that it is the best narrative of a horse-race that has been written by any modern poet.” W: S. Braithwaite
+ Boston Transcript p5 N 20 ’20 1500w
“‘Right Royal’ is a bad poem, both intrinsically and because it fails to satisfy certain necessary expectations. It promised to be as good as ‘Reynard the fox,’ but it is woefully, incredibly worse.” Mark Van Doren
− + Nation 111:sup670 D 8 ’20 240w
Reviewed by W. B. D. Henderson
+ N Y Evening Post p2 N 20 ’20 1650w