Robert Bridges

Seymour) (1844-1930. Poet. Educated at Eton and Oxford, he practiced medicine until 1882, when he retired to Yattendon, Berkshire, to devote himself to literature. He wrote poems, plays, and essays. His concern for hymn-singing and church music led to his Yattendon Hymnal (1895- 99), for which he wrote, translated, and adapted forty-four hymns, including “Ah, holy Jesu, how hast thou offended” (Heermann); “All my hope on God is founded” (Neander); and “The duteous day now closeth” (Gerhardt). Although the collection of 100 hymns had a restricted circulation, its literary and musical merits were such that it was used extensively for the English Hymnal (1906) and the Oxford Hymn Book (1908). In 1913 he became Poet Laureate. His long poem, The Testament of Beauty (1929), sought to reconcile science and Christianity. He was the first to edit the poems of G.M. Hopkins* (1918).