During the early 1920�s, Masefield received an Honorary Doctorate of Literature from Oxford University, and other English and Scottish Universities also bestowed honorary degrees upon him. His close proximity to Oxford afforded him the opportunity to meet and befriend several of the University officials. In 1923, Masefield organized the Oxford Recitations, a contest held annually whose purpose was "to discover good speakers of verse and to encourage �the beautiful speaking of poetry.�" Masefield strongly believed that poetry should be spoken with voice and that medium of communicating verse was more important than printed poetry.

The Recitations were successful in many ways, including the impressive numbers of contest applicants. It was also successful in promoting natural speech in poetical recitations, and there were larger numbers of people learning how to listen to poetry. Masefield began to question however, whether the Recitations should continue as a contest, and began to believe that the competitive nature should be lessened, and the event should become more of a festival. In 1929, Masefield broke with the contest concept which also resulted in his breaking his association in this regard with Oxford University, and the Recitations came to an end.