BRIDGES, ROBERT. October. *$1.50 Knopf 821
“‘October, and other poems’ does not bring anything particularly new to bear on Mr Bridges’s poetry. Its principal value is to show the poet laureate’s reactions to the war.” (N Y Times) “The best that we get is a quiet sound to arms in ‘Wake up, England,’ a tribute to victory in ‘Der tag: Nelson and Beatty,’ a ghostly dialogue between the victorious admirals of the past and present, some stanzas on ‘Britannia victrix,’ in the orthodox tradition of rehearsing the spirit of England’s greatness, some tributes to personal friends who were lost in the war, laurel-verse for the great soldier Lord Kitchener, sonnets to America in joining the fight for liberty, praise for the dominions for throwing in their lot with the mother of the brood, and other such occasional verses.” (Boston Transcript)
“The disappointment, if we may call it disappointment, of this small book is that so much of its room is taken up by poems of a more or less official inspiration. Nothing he writes, be the occasion never so official or the inspiration tenuous, is marred by a touch of shoddy; the dignity of poetry is safe in his hands. This dignity has no pomposity. It is only a name for the austerity and candour that mark the true artist.”
+ − Ath p472 Ap 9 ’20 640w
Reviewed by S: Roth
+ Bookm 52:361 D ’20 160w
Reviewed by W: S. Braithwaite
+ Boston Transcript p4 Ag 28 ’20 1150w
“The collection is hardly representative of Mr Bridges’ best work, but at its least, it is good verse.”