25 AUGUST 1928, Page 24

In the second volume of Mr. Robert Bridges' Collected Essays

(Oxford University Press, 2s. 6d.) there are two very able and interesting papers on free verse and on poetic diction. Mr. Bridges' scholarly nature gives him also a catholic sym- pathy. His analysis of the aims of free verse, its limits, the mistakes' of its•propagandists, and the degree in which it could be assimilated to a classical preisody; is clear, tactful, and illuminating.