This presentation copy of a coronation poem for George VI and Queen Elizabeth is bound in spectacular blue and gold silk, with an incorporated bookmark. The pages are vellum and the poem has been written out by a calligrapher, and illuminated in gold. The poem takes the form of a prayer, in which Masefield asks God to imbue the new King and Queen with the power to create a peaceful and happy nation. John Masefield was poet laureate from 1930 to his death in 1967. He was a prolific poet and fiction writer, and by the end of his life his volume of 'Collected Poems' had sold over 200,000 copies. This was an unprecedented figure for a modern poet, and spoke to his popularity with readers. Today, however, he is perhaps most well known as a children's writer, having authored such classics as The Midnight Folk (1927) and The Box of Delights (1935).