SOURCE: An introduction to Sonnets & Verses, Gerald Duckworth & Co., 1954, pp. xiii-xxiii.

In the following essay, Jebb explores the autobiographical aspects of Belloc's poetry.

In the latter years of his life Belloc often repeated that what he would wish to be remembered by was his verse. He was a firm believer in the Muse—that influence outside himself that inspires the poet—and so he treated his verse almost as though it had been written by someone else.

But though the Muse may inspire, the content and form of a man's verse is his own, dictated to him by his vision, his ideals, and the events of his life; for poetry is the spokesman of the soul. That is certainly true of Belloc. His poetry reflects the amazing diversity of his life, and so it may not be out of place in this Introduction to give an outline of...