Robert Bridges

Robert Seymour Bridges (1844-1930) was an English poet, holder of the honour of poet laureate from 1913. He was born in Walmer, Kent, and educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, but went in for medicine and practised as a doctor until 1881. His first collection of poems was published in 1873. His college friend, Gerard Manley Hopkins, a superior poet, owes his present fame to Bridges' efforts in arranging the posthumous publication of his verse. Bridges also wrote plays, with limited success, and literary criticism, including studies of John Keats and John Milton. Some of his poems were set to music by Charles Parry.