WHO was to be the new Poet-Laureate or whether the office might
not with advantage be abolished is a question that has been warmly
debated in the Press and in Society. The Prime Minister has -
wisely, as we think - turned a deaf ear to the popular voice, and
has chosen a "poets' poet" rather than a Tyrtaeus, whose verse
could quicken manly hearts to thoughts of war, or one who could
indite graceful epithalamia. Mr Robert Bridges succeeds to the
laurel crown that has adorned the brows of former Court poets, and,
if his selection will fail to be appreciated by the crowd, it will
none the less be approved by a smaller circle which will recognize
in Mr Asquith's choice of Mr Bridges a desire to do honour to the
cause of poetry rather than to appoint a versifier for State
occasions. For Mr Bridges has devoted the best years of his learned
life to the scholarly study of the science and art of poetry. We in
particular are interested in his appointment by reason of the
services he has rendered to hymnology and Church music. The
Yattendon Hymnal, of which he was the editor, is a monument of fine
taste both in music and in verse, and it is only to be regretted
that its merits are so little known and appreciated. In time,
however, Mr Bridges will, we believe, come into his own, and
another generation will perceive that we had a prophet among us to
whom we failed to pay sufficient honour.