At a time when the romantic poets were on a rise, Bridges stood apart for his mastery of prosody and for publishing the poems of his friend and Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins (give link ), much against his wishes.
He published long poems and poetic dramas, and he was also popular for several shorter poems from 1890 to 1894 and The Testament of Beauty (1929).
The Growth of Love - Robert Bridges
Robert Bridges published three versions of his sonnet sequence, The Growth of Love:
in 1876 - 24 sonnets, in 1889 - 79 sonnets and in 1898 - 69 sonnets
The poem tries to understand the process of love - from its beginning as an unsure path in the person's mind to when love is fully realised.
Bridge's journey is a meandering, rather than a goal-oriented path. Each sonnet is a window through which the poet gazes at one of the various aspects of this emotion. Bridge's approach is one of gentle and courteous appreciation, observational rather than meditative, and almost completely free from the feeling of striving for salvation or apotheosis.
They that in play can do the thing they would,
Having an instinct throned in reason's place,
--And every perfect action hath the grace
Of indolence or thoughtless hardihood--
These are the best: yet be there workmen good
Who lose in earnestness control of face,
Or reckon means, and rapt in effort base
Reach to their end by steps well understood.
Me whom thou sawest of late strive with the pains
Of one who spends his strength to rule his nerve,
--Even as a painter breathlessly who stains
His scarcely moving hand lest it should swerve--
Behold me, now that I have cast my chains,
Master of the art which for thy sake I serve.
Adapted from - Englishpoets blog
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