Robert Bridges



Robert Seymour Bridges, OM, (23 October 1844 – 21 April 1930) was an English poet, who served as Poet Laureate.

Life
Bridges was born in Walmer, Kent, England, and educated at Eton College and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. At Corpus Christi College, Bridges became friends with Gerard Manley Hopkins (who owes his reputation to Bridges' efforts in arranging the posthumous publication in 1918 of his verse).

Bridges went on to study medicine in London at St Bartholomew's Hospital, intending to practise until the age of forty and then retire to write poetry. He practised as a casualty physician at his teaching hospital (where he made a series of highly critical remarks about the Victorian medical establishment) and subsequently as a full physician to the Great (later Royal) Northern Hospital. He was also a physician to the Hospital for Sick Children.

Lung disease forced him to retire in 1882, and from that point on he devoted himself to writing and literary research. However, Bridges' literary work started long before his retirement, his first collection of poems having been published in 1873.

In 1884 he married Monica Waterhouse, daughter of Alfred Waterhouse R.A. The poet Elizabeth Daryush (1887-1977) was their daughter.

Bridges spent the rest of his life in rural seclusion, first at Yattendon, Berkshire, then at Boars Hill, Oxford, where he died.

Writing
As a poet Bridges stands rather apart from the current of modern English verse, but his work has had great influence in a select circle, by its restraint, purity, precision, and delicacy yet strength of expression. It embodies a distinct theory of prosody.

In the book Milton's Prosody, he took an empirical approach to examining Milton's use of blank verse, and developed the controversial theory that Milton's practice was essentially syllabic. He considered free verse to be too limiting, and explained his position in the essay "Humdrum and Harum-Scarum". His own efforts to "free" verse resulted in the poems he called "Neo-Miltonic Syllabics", which were collected in New Verse (1925). The meter of these poems was based on syllables rather than accents, and he used the principle again in the long philosophical poem The Testament of Beauty (1929), for which he received the Order of Merit. His best-known poems, however, are to be found in the two earlier volumes of Shorter Poems (1890, 1894). He also wrote verse plays, with limited success, and literary criticism, including a study of the work of John Keats.

Bridges' poetry was privately printed in the first instance, and was slow in making its way beyond a comparatively small circle of his admirers. His best work is to be found in his Shorter Poems (1890), and a complete edition (to date) of his Poetical Works (6 vols.) was published in 1898-1905.

Despite being made poet laureate in 1913, Bridges was never a very well known poet and only achieved his great popularity shortly before his death with The Testament of Beauty. However, his verse evoked response in many great British composers of the time. Among those to set his poems to music were Hubert Parry, Gustav Holst, and later Gerald Finzi.

Hymnody
Bridges made an important contribution to hymnody with the publication in 1899 of his Yattendon Hymnal, which he created specifically for musical reasons. This collection of hymns, although not a financial success, became a bridge between the Victorian hymnody of the last half of the 19th century and the modern hymnody of the early 20th century. Bridges translated important historic hymns, and many of these were included in Songs of Syon (1904) and the later English Hymnal (1906). Several of Bridges' translations are still in use today:
 * Ah, Holy Jesus (Johann Heermann, 1630)
 * All My Hope on God Is Founded (Joachim Neander, c. 1680)
 * Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring (Martin Jahn, 1661)
 * O Gladsome Light (Phos Hilaron)
 * O Sacred Head, sore wounded (Paulus Gerhardt, 1656)
 * O Splendour of God's Glory Bright (Ambrose,4th cent.)
 * When morning gilds the skies (stanza 3; Katholisches Gesangbuch, 1744)

Phonetics
One of Abercrombie's early projects during this period was to advise Robert Bridges, the Poet Laureate, on the reformed spelling system he was devising for the publication of his collected essays (later published in seven volumes by Oxford University Press, with the help of the distinguished typographer Stanley Morison, who designed the new letters). Thus Robert Bridges has also contributed to phonetics

Recognition
Bridges was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London in 1900.

Nine of his poems ("My Delight and Thy Delight", "Spirits", "Nightingales", "A Passer-by", "Absence", "On a Dead Child", "Pater Filio", "Winter Nightfall", and "When Death to Either shall come") were included in the Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900.

He was appointed Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom in 1913, and held that position until his death in 1930.

Poetry

 * Poems. London: Pickering, 1873.
 * The Growth of Love. London: Bumpus, 1876
 * revised and enlarged edition, Oxford, UK: H. Daniel, 1889.
 * (limited edition). Portland, ME: T.B. Mosher, 1894. 
 * Poems by the Author of "The Growth of Love". London: Bumpus, 1879.
 * Poems. London: Bumpus, 1880.
 * Poems. Oxford, UK: H. Daniel, 1884.
 * Eros & Psyche: A poem in twelve measures. London: George Bell, 1885
 * revised edition, 1894.
 * The Shorter Poems of Robert Bridges (Books I-IV). London: George Bell, 1890.
 * Eden: An Oratorio (music by C.V. Stanford). London: George Bell; London & New York: Novello, Ewer, 1891.
 * Shorter Poems Book V. Oxford, UK: H. Daniel, 1893.
 * Invocation to Music: An ode (In Honour of Henry Purcell). London: Novello, Ewer, 1895.
 * published as Purcell Ode and other poems. Chicago: Way & William, 1896.
 * The Shorter Poems of Robert Bridges (Books I-V). London: George Bell, 1896.
 * Christmas, 1897. Oxford, UK: Daniel, 1897.
 * Poetical Works of Robert Bridges. (6 volumes), London: Smith, Elder, 1898-1905. Volume I, 1898; Volume II,; Volume III, 1901; Volume IV, 1902; Volume V, 1902; Volume VI, 1905.
 * Poetical Works of Robert Bridges, Excluding the eight dramas. London, New York, Toronto, & Melbourne: Henry Frowde / Oxford University Press, 1912.
 * Ibant Obscuri, An experiment in the classical hexameter (paraphrases of the Aeneid, VI: 257-751, 893-898, and Iliad, XXIV: 339-660). Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1916 (originally published in New Quarterly, 1909).
 * Britannia Victrix. London: Oxford University Press, 1918.
 * October and other poems, with occasional verses on the War. London: Heinemann, 1920; New York: Knopf, 1920.
 * New Verse: Explanations of the prosody of My late syllabic free verse. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1925.
 * The Tapestry (collection), [London], 1925.
 * The Testament of Beauty. Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 1929.
 * On Receiving Trivia from the Author, Mill House Press. England: Stanford Dingley,, 1930.
 * The Shorter Poems of Robert Bridges. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1931.
 * Verses Written for Mrs. Daniel, introduction by George Gordon, Clarendon Press (Oxford, England), 1932.
 * Poetical Works of Robert Bridges, Excluding the Eight Dramas (2nd edition). London: Oxford University Press, 1936.
 * Robert Bridges: Selected Poems (edited by Donald E. Stanford). Cheadle, UK: Carcanet Press, 1974.
 * A Choice of Bridges's Verse (selected with an introduction by Lord David Cecil). London: Faber, 1987.

Dramas

 * Prometheus the Firegiver (masque). London: H. Daniel, 1883.
 * Nero. London: Bell & Bumpus, 1885 (retitled as Nero Part I, 1894).
 * The Feast of Bacchus. London: H. Daniel, 1889.
 * Palicio: A romantic drama in five acts in the Elizabethan manner. London: Bumpus, 1890.
 * The Return of Ulysses. London: Bumpus, 1890.
 * The Christian Captives. London: Bumpus, 1890.
 * Achilles in Scyros. London: Bumpus, 1890.
 * The Humours of the Court: A comedy in three acts. London: George Bell / Bumpus, 1893; New York: Macmillan, 1893.
 * Nero Part 2. London: Bell & Bumpus, 1894.
 * Demeter (masque). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.

Non-fiction

 * An Account of the Casualty Department. London: St. Bartholomew's Hospital, 1878.
 * On the Elements of Milton's Blank Verse in Paradise Lost. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1887
 * revised and republished in Milton's Prosody, 1893.
 * On the Prosody of Paradise Regained and Sampson Agonistes. Oxford: B.H. Blackwell / London: Simpkin, Marshall, 1889 (revised and republished in Milton's Prosody, 1893).
 * Milton's Prosody: An examination of the blank verse in Milton's later poems. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1893.
 * revised and enlarged edition, with an additional chapter by William Johnson Stone. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1901
 * revised and enlarged again, with an additional chapter on accentual verse. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1921.
 * John Keats: A Critical Essay. Oxford, UK: 1895.
 * A Practical Discourse on Some Principles of Hymn-Singing. Oxford, UK: B.H. Blackwell / London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, 1901.
 * About Hymns. Church Music Society (Occasional Papers #II), 1911.
 * A Tract on the Present State of English Pronunciation. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1913.
 * An Address to the Swindon Branch of the Workers' Educational Association. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1916.
 * The Necessity of Poetry (essay). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1918.
 * Henry Bradley. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1926 (republished in Three Friends, 1932).
 * The Influence of the Audience: Considerations Preliminary to the Psychological Analysis of Shakespeare's Characters. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page, 1926
 * originally published in The Works of William Shakespeare, Volume 10. Stratford-upon-Avon: Shakespeare Head Press, 1907.
 * Collected Essays, Papers, Etc. (ten volumes). London: Oxford University Press (London), 1927-1936.
 * Poetry (essay). London: British Broadcasting Corporation, 1929.
 * Three Friends: Memoirs of Digby Mackworth Dolben, Richard Watson Dixon, Henry Bradley. London: Oxford University Press, 1932.

Edited

 * Hymns: The Yattendon Hymnal (four parts, with H. Ellis Wooldridge). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1895-1899.
 * Poems by the Late Rev. Dr. Richard Watson Dixon. London: Smith, Elder, 1909.
 * The Poems of Digby Mackworth Dolben. London & New York: Humphrey Milford / Oxford University Press, 1915.
 * The Spirit of Man: An anthology in English & French from the philosophers & poets (poetry and prose). London, New York, Bombay, Calcutta & Madras: Longmans Green, 1916.
 * Gerard Manley Hopkins, Poems. London: Humphrey Milford, 1918
 * 2nd edition, 1931.
 * (Compiler) The Chilswell Book of English Poetry Compiled and Annotated for the Use of SchoolsLondon: Longmans, 1924.
 * The B.B.C.'s Recommendations for Pronouncing Doubtful Words, Reissued with Criticisms. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1929.

Letters

 * The Correspondence of Robert Bridges and Henry Bradley 1900-1923. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1940.
 * The Correspondence of Robert Bridges and W.B. Yeats (edited by Richard J. Finneran). London: Macmillan, 1977.
 * The Selected Letters of Robert Bridges with the Correspondence of Robert Bridges and Lionel Muirhead (edited by Donald E. Stanford, two volumes). Newark, NJ: University of Delaware Press, 1983-1984.
 * XXI Letters: A Correspondence between Robert Bridges and R.C. Trevelyan on "New Verse" and "The Testament of Beauty". Stanford Dingley, England, UK: Mill House Press, 1955.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy the Poetry Foundation.