1948 ‘The North Sea’

In ‘The North Sea’ he mentions Spens four times by name, including in the opening lines and in the concluding stanza. Though not in ballad form, the poem plays on the sound and rhythm of ‘Spens’.

For example, in Sir Walter Scott’s version of the ballad, the king’s letter says:

‘To Noroway, to Noroway,
To Noroway o’er the faem;’

MacNeice writes:

Doorway? No more so than your office hours.
Doorway? No more so than your hours in bed
Alone or with a companion.

‘The North Sea’ is set on a steamer crossing that body of water. The narrator questions notions of time, musing about Spens and the Vikings and the careless immortality of this sea. MacNeice writes of Spens as ‘a man of iron/And master of his craft’ who, like everyone else, must ‘conform to the sea’s routine’. ‘The North Sea’ begins with a clear allusion to ‘Spens’: ‘But not for a king’s daughter?’

1953 Canto XVIII of ‘Autumn Sequel’

In ‘Autumn Sequel’ MacNeice parallels the death of Spens with that of King Arthur in his barge.