Which is the odd one out and why; Robert Southey, William Wordsworth, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Alfred Austin, or Robert Bridges?

skysmom65

Alfred Austin is the odd one out...he was reckoned among the worst of the poets laureate. His laureateship: Britain nearly managed an entire century of reputable laureates with Robert Southey, William Wordsworth, and Alfred Lord Tennyson, but the political appointee Austin crept in at the last. In general the years of his office are given short shrift in histories of poetry, coming as they do between the late Victorians and the innovation of the war poets and modernism; while some poets of the era were unfairly dismissed, the contempt towards Austin is well-deserved. He may have been a competent prose writer, but there are few defenders of his verse. http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1462574 Mar 22 07, 12:24 PM

davejacobs

Any members of a set can be arranged in some kind of order according to the whim of the setter. But just occupying a particular position in this list does not make it the 'odd one out'. Being the best, or the middlest, would be just as odd. Mar 23 07, 2:04 PM

Baloo55th

Tennyson could also be regarded as odd one out - being the only one to have a peerage. Mar 23 07, 4:46 PM