Bridges, Robert. (1844 - 1930).
L i f e
- a poet and a physician: lung disease made him retire when not yet 40, then devoted himself exclusively to poetry
W o r k
- poet laureate (1913 - 1930)
- the literary executor of the poet and his friend Gerard Manley Hopkins
- his prosodic theory: poetry should be based on the number of syllables in a line x not on the number of accents
- poetry should follow the natural flow of speech
Shorter Poems (1890, 1894):
- a poetry collection including some of his best known poems
Milton's Prosody, With a Chapter on Accentual Verse (1893):
- literary criticism of John Milton + his prosodic theory
- controversially claims Milton's blank verse is essentially syllabic
New Verse (1925):
- a collection of poems applying his prosodic theory
The Testament of Beauty (1929):
- a collection of poems, won him the Order of Merit
Yattendon Hymnal (1899):
- a collection of hymns
- a bridge between the Victorian hymnody of the late 19th century x the modern hymnody of the early 20th century
Quote
"I will not let thee go. / I hold thee by too many bands: / Thou sayest farewell, and lo! / I have thee by the hands, / And will not let thee go."
From "I Will Not Let Thee Go".
Basics
(Photo: Libweb Princeton edu).
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Author
Robert Seymour Bridges. (1844 - 1930). British. -
Work
Poet. Advocate of syllabic poetry.
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Genre
Late Victorian poetry.
Literature
Abrams, Meyer Howard, ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York: W. W. Norton, 1993.
Barnard, Robert. Stručné dějiny anglické literatury. Praha: Brána, 1997.
Baugh, Albert C. ed. A Literary History of England. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1967.
Coote, Stephen. The Penguin Short History of English Literature. London: Penguin, 1993.
Sampson, George. The Concise Cambridge History of English Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1946.
Sanders, Andrew. The Short Oxford History of English Literature. New York: Clarendon Press, 1994.