Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1913-07-22

then began the practice of his profess
sion, being regularly attached to the
staff at ST. Bartholomew hospital
and of the Children's hospital in Great
Ormonde street. Retiring from prac-
tice in 1882 he married and left Lon
don for his beautiful rural estate at
Yattendon in Berkshire. Since that
time he has devoted himself exclu-
sively to literature, and particularly
To poetry.
Interesting to students of the sub
ject as are Mr.. Bridges experiments
in classical meters, it is on his work
done in the familiar English rhythms
that he must depend for popular es-
TEEN. The following poem has few
eccentrieities of form and its appeal
is undeniable. This and other verses
are taken from THE Poetical Works
of Robert Bridges" published by the
oxford University press:
whittier. o splendid ship. Jhy white
sails crowding,
Leaning across the bosom of The
That fearest no sea rising. nor sky
whittier away, fair rover and what
thy quest?
All, COON. when winter mas all our
wales orprest,
When skies are cold and misty and aail
Wilt thou glide on the blue Pacific
Tn n s,,mr,ar ba,.or os1oa1 +h,- r-h;+o
sails furling.
I there before thee in the country that
Already arrived. am inhaling the
odorous air;
I watch thee enter unerringly where
And another queen of the strangs
! shipping there.
| Thy sails for awnings spread, thy
! mastS bare;
| Nor ia aught from the foaming roof tC
the snow-capped, grandest
| Peak, that is ever the feathery palm:
! more fair
Than thou. so upright. so sta-cly. and
still thou standest-
And yet. @. splendid ship ,unhailed anC
know not. If, aiming a fancy,
| rightly divine
| That thou hast a purpose joyful,
| courage blameless,
Thy port assured in happier lant
| than mine.
But for all l have given thee, beaut!
! enough is thine.
AS thou. aslant with trim tackle anC
! shrcudins,
| In the offing scatterest foam. thy whit
sails crowding.
Perhaps the most sympathetic ant
illuminative essay that has been writ
ten on the subject OF Mr.. Bridges
poetry is that of Arthur Symons
which appeared in the Monthly Review
in July, 1901, and was later included
in Studies in Seven Arts" John Lam
company. This is a poets apprecis
ton of a poet: there is little in Mr.
Bridges poetry with which Mr. Sy
mons finds fault and seldom, evel
when writing of his beloved SymbolistI
of Paris, has he been more passionat
in his praise.
, Yet Mr.. Symons' description of tn
verse Of the prospective laureate
not such as would attract multitud
of readers Mr. Bridges appears t.
me in his Shorter Poems, he write!
, ito be alone in our time as write
of purely lyric poetry, poetry whic
aims at being an embodied joy
> calm rapture" Now, calm rapture
. is a lovely phrase, but it does nc
greatly move the public, even tn
poetry reading public. Perhaps thi
is the very reason that Robert Bridge
: is so little known, while poets les
: gifted have mighty audiences-hi
rapture" is too calm"
In the first paragraph Mr.. Symon
6 sounds his keynote of laudatiol
! Here is an artist so scrupulous thu
beauty itself must come only in sobt
Q apparel, joy only walking temporal
h ly, sorrow without the private disfi
s uring of tears. Made, as it is, cut (
|. what might be the COMMONPLACE if
/ were not the most select thing in I'll
n world; written, as ii is, with a deli
9 erateness which might be cold, if
d were not at that quiet heat in whiC
Il rapture is no longer astonished
2 itself; realizing, as it does, Coleridge
5. requirement that poetry in its high
Il and purer sense should demand co
n tinuCus admiration, not regular recl
# renee of conscious surprise; til
e poetry, more than almost any in En-
s lish, is art for arts sake; and 1t show
If better certainly than any other; he
le that formula saves from exces
rather than induces. it. So evenly a
,e form and substance set over again
O. each other that it might be said, wi
;e as much or as little justice, that ever
thing exists for form, or that nothi
is sacrificed to it"
naIInAEnnE La EMnhnEn