we must recall the figure of Dostoevski in the Siberian prison.

Many men of natural good taste and good breeding have succumbed to a
coarse environment. What saved our poet, and made his experiences
actually minister to his spiritual flame, rather than burn him up? It
was perhaps that final miracle of humanity, acute self-consciousness,
stronger in some men than in others, strongest of all in the creative
artist. Even at the age of twenty, Browning felt it more than he felt
anything else, and his words would apply to John Masefield, and
explain in some measure his thirst for sensation and his control of
it.

I am made up of an intensest life,
Of a most clear idea of consciousness
Of self, distinct from all its qualities,
From all affections, passions, feelings, powers;
And thus far it exists, if tracked, in all:
But linked, in me, to self-supremacy,
Existing as a centre to all things,
Most potent to create and rule and call
Upon all things to minister to it;
And to a principle of restlessness
Which would be all, have, see, know, taste, feel, all--
This is myself.

Although the poem _Dauber_ is a true story--for there was such a
man, who suffered both horrible fear within and brutal ridicule
without, who finally conquered both, and who, in the first sweets of
victory, as he was about to enter upon his true career, lost his life
by falling from the yardarm--cannot help thinking that Mr. Masefield