Alfred Noyes was an English poet who also worked as a short-story writer and playwright. He was born in 1880 and published several popular works during his lifetime. These included ‘Drake,’ a 200-page epic, written in blank verse. Others included volumes like The Flower of Old Japan and Poems, published respectively in 1903 and 1904. His full-length play, Sherwood, was published several years later in 1911. His last poem was written the year he died, in 1958, and was titled Ballade of the Breaking Shell.