SOURCE: “The Old Main Line,” in his The Time of Yeats: English Poetry of To-Day Against an American Background, D. Appleton-Century Company, Inc., 1937 (and reissued by Russell & Russell, 1969), pp. 67-120.

In the following excerpt, Weygandt describes Bridges as a talented but nevertheless minor poet whose works can best be understood and appreciated after four or more readings.

There has never been any general acceptance of Robert Bridges (1844-1930) by the reading public. That is a lot which has fallen to few poets. There has not been even any large acceptance of him by that smaller reading public which cares for poetry. That is a lot which has fallen to fellows of his no better poets, but of less severe and bare a style. Bridges was made laureate at the wish of the poets of England, a large number of whom felt that he was the man for the...