Robert Seymour Bridges

Robert Seymour Bridges 1844-1930, English poet. In 1882 he abandoned medical practice to devote himself to writing. An excellent metrist, he wrote many beautiful lyrics and longer poems, noted for their refined simplicity and perfection of form. Although not a well-known poet, in 1913 he was made poet laureate. In 1929, when Bridges was 85, he published The Testament of Beauty, a philosophical poem on the evolution of the human soul. It achieved immediate popularity and is considered his greatest work. Long interested in prosody, Bridges published two important works on the subject, Milton's Prosody (1893) and John Keats (1895). He also published the poems of his friend Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Bibliography: See The Selective Letters of Robert Bridges, ed. by D. E. Stanford (2 vol., 1983); study by D. E. Stanford (1978).

Bridges, Robert Seymour (1844–1930), Poet Laureate from 1913. In 1882 he abandoned medicine for literature and music. The Testament of Beauty (1929) is a philosophical poem which seeks to reconcile scientific knowledge with Christian faith. In the Yattendon Hymnal (1895–9) he revived many fine 16th- and 17th-cent. melodies; his work was drawn on in the English Hymnal. He also published the first collected edition of the Poems of G. M. Hopkins.