Robert Bridges Poet Laureate Reading

O! FORD U NIVE RSITY PRE SS" L ONDON E DINBU RG H G LASG OW T ORONTO ME L B OU RNE , B OMBA Y MPH REY LFO RD MA . H U MI . PU BLISH ER TO THE U NIVE RSITY PREFATORY NOTE THIS lecture a s here published differs slightly in form t from what it was as delivered . On the one hand the tex l a s i to is a litt e longer , want of t me made it necessary On omit then some passages given in these pages . the a s il n other hand some of the pieces read lustrations, whe wa s the lecture delivered, are not reproduced, but are th e give n by reference to pages of the Oxford Book, Th e Poetica l Works o Robert Brid es th e f g , excluding E am ! m il x U ight Dr as Hu phrey M ford, O ford niversity f P 1 1 . ress, 9 3 The di ferent forms and prices of this edition wil l be found at the end . REA DING S FRO M T H E PO E T LA U RE ATE WITH AN INTRODU CTION U NDOU BTE DLY the event of the vacation for u s in O xford, the event of the year in the English literary world , was the appointment of our neighbour , the friend P t . of u s . R many of , Mr obert Bridges, to be oe Laureate ’ I t a t The friend of many Of u s . ought to ell you the outstart that I am an old friend , and I Speak with the c partiality of an Ol d friend . You may dis ount my it O . pinion , if you will , proportionately But is my belief that it is an event and an appointment of no small or brief importance . I would begin with one word, or rather really two w ords , of congratulation . I would congratulate Mr . Bridges in your name and in the name of his university, of h a s c which he shown himself not only su h a worthy , but such a loyal and affectionate son . And I would c P ongratulate that other son of Oxford , the rime Minister , a n d thank him for not having listened to those in Parlia m t en and elsewhere , who would fain have persuaded ffi him to abolish this historic and picturesque o ce . The history of the Laureateship is not very well known . T o recount it would require a spec ial lecture . I will only sa y that it is partly the fault of the poets themselves if it is less continuously creditable than it might have been . Some years ago I had the Opportunity of hearing ’ . ffi Mr Gladstone s opinion about the o ce . He said to me that the history of the Office wa s curious and seemed 6 Poetica l n a mes of Poets t b e to Show that an appointmen , to prosperous , required to combine a number of conditions It has had, of its . course, ups and downs Oddly enough, it was vacant just a hundred years a go this summer by the death of wa s P e th e then holder , whose name y , a member of my own college . l Mr . Bridges has, in the Co lection of Sonnets entitled The Growth of Love a delightful sonnet in which he notes how by a happy chance so many of the names of the great poets are themselves beautiful and musical , and might seem to have been chosen for their beauty and euphony . t Thus may I hink he writes , the adopting Muses chose Their sons by name, knowing none would be heard r Or w it so oft in all the world as those , S Dan Chaucer , mighty hakespeare , then for third u s The classic Milton , and to arose Shelley with liquid music in the word . ’ P wa s a n d Mr . ye s name not poetical , however spelt , e was Often made game of . The Laureateship at that tim wa s u wa s very down . But why it down The fa lt lay not t K P f d with h e ings or the rime Ministers . They had o fere it in the previous c entury to one of the very best poets of the century, to Gray . Gray refused it , in a clever and h e characteristic letter . But in this very letter he said a nd hoped some one might be found to restore its credit , h aving refused, he shortly after wrote the Installation - Ode , a pre eminently occasional , laudatory, laureate piece containing some splendid and some most beautiful verses, but the concluding lines of which are absolutely in the h s vein w ich he and others di paraged . The star of Brunswick smiles serene And gilds the horrors of the deep . ’ ‘ ’ Th e poets l a u rel Th e odorou s ba y 7 Infth e year 1 81 3the laurel was offered— again to one — of the best poets of the day to Sir Walter Scott . One of the reasons why Scott declined it was that Gray had so done . It was then given to Southey, then to Words worth, and then to Tennyson . Tennyson received it as w e all know , Greener from the brows Of him who uttered nothing base . Onl l He left it not y greener , but more glorious stil , fragrant and fertile with the flower and fruit of some ’ forty years . The poet s laurel , be it remembered, is the odorous bay Wh en the Exhibition of 1 862 wa s opened and Tenny ’ t son s Ode was sung , one of the newspapers reported tha the poet - laureate was present clothed in his green ba ize - - A Tennyson died just one and twenty years a go. child born on the day of his death would , this autumn , exactly have reached his maj ority . Born four or five so t c years earlier, hat he ould just remember Tenny - fi - - v e . is son, he would be to day or six and twenty It e th period of a generation . During all that time the laurel has certainly been , to put it gently , somewhat in it is n ot is th e shade . But if cut down it an evergreen su n tree, and once more it is shining in the . Ha bemu s oeta m l a u rea tu m ! p We have a laureate , in the E E true nglish line of nglish poetry , of Chaucer and Spenser , i . of M lton and Gray , of Wordsworth and Tennyson Ol d But I am not going to praise , or to appraise , my I friend . am not going to attempt any critical study I of his work or his works . have done so before now, and I may perhaps be allowed to mention to you the name of a little volume in which some three- and-twenty years ago I ventured to introduce and commend him to 8 Regin a Ca ra ’ Mil e s s readers of poetry . It was a volume in Mr . A . H . series of the Poets and the Poetry of the Century and it wa s entitled Robert Bridges a n d Contemdmra ry 2 Poets . I wa s k . s as ed to do this by Mr Miles , and Mr Bridge himself aided me in the task by giving me a few auto c biographi al notes, which I still possess , and of which I made use . Among the contemporary poets whom it contained E were Frederic W . H . Myers , Edward Dowden , rnest Myers, Gerard Hopkins (with an introduction from ’ ’ O Sh a u h n e ss w Mr . Bridges own pen) , Arthur g y , Andre R E . Lang, dmund Gosse , W E Henley , H D awnsley , R R S . L . tevenson , Alice Meynell , A Mary F obinson , R K . William Watson, and udyard ipling 1 06 wa s re In 9 , fifteen years later, it revised and Brid es to Ki l in s issued under the title g p g. The ladie were removed to another volume and some new poets were added, a mong them Henry Newbolt and Laurence Binyon . o to What , with y ur kind concurrence , I should desire - to do to day is , to ask you to judge, and to help you judge , for yourselves , of this fine poet , for such he is , and his production , giving such amount of introduction and explanation a s may enable y ou to understand h is poems better . n o b een For it is the truth that his poems have t , and a s still are not , as well known they ought to be . I find , for instance , that comparatively few know that he has already written a beautiful piece in what might be con sidere d a peculiarly laureate vein . It wa s not written to al l command and is of course the better for that . It V ’ was written , however , for Queen ictoria s Diamond ’ ‘ R C - . e ina a ra f Jubilee It is headed g , Jubilee Song , or Fa ll en tis semita vita e 9 1 8 Music , 97 It has a characteristic Latin Envoy 6 . It will be found on p . 3 4 of the Oxford edition is t It a commonplace to say tha Mr . Bridges is not t is . a popular poet .

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