Bridges, Robert Seymour

(1844-1930)

   Born to a prosperous Suffolk family, Bridges was educated at Eton College and Corpus Christi, Oxford. He practiced medicine until 1882; after that he devoted himself almost entirely to poetry. He was adviser to the Oxford University Press on style and linguistics. He was appointed poet laureate in 1913 and was one of the founders of the "Society for Pure English." His published works of poems, plays, hymns, and anthologies include: Eros and Psyche, 1885. Shorter Poems, 1890 and 1894. New Poems, 1899. The Spirit of Man, 1916. New Verse, 1925. The Testament of Beauty, 1929. Two of his hymns: "All Praise Be to God," "Rejoice, O Land, in God Thy Might." Of his several hymn translations, probably the best known is "When Morning Gilds the Skies." His 1918 poem "To the United States of America" commemorates the American soldiers who were killed during World War I, where they joined with free men everywhere to win freedom. He ends with what sounds like prophecy-that we will create new world and not just patch up the old one.

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). Oldpoetry (www.oldpoetry.com). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Cyber Hymnal (http://www.cyberhymnal.org/index.htm). The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry. 2nd ed. Richard Ellmann, and Robert O'Clair, ed. W.W. Norton, 1988. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.