THE ODE OF LIFE.
"The 'Ode of Life' ought to be the most popular of all the author's works. People flock to hear great preachers, but in this book they will hear a voice more eloquent than theirs, dealing with the most important subjects that can ever occupy the thoughts of man."—Westminster Review, July, 1880.
"The many who have found what seemed to them of value and of use in the previous writings of the author, may confidently turn to this, his latest and, in his own view, his most mature work. It is full of beauty of thought, feeling, and language."—Daily News, April 8th, 1880.
"Full of exquisite taste, tender colour, and delicate fancy, these poems will add considerably to the reputation of their author."—Sunday Times, April 25th, 1880.
"The author is one of the few real poets now living. Anything at once more sympathetic and powerful it would be difficult to find in the poetry of the present day."—Scotsman, May 11th, 1880.
"Next to the 'Epic of Hades,' it is his best work."—Cambridge Review, May 19th, 1880.
"Here is one standing high in power and in fame who has chosen a nobler course.... The experiment is successful, and though we must not now discuss the laws to which the structure of an ode should conform, we rank the poem in this respect as standing far above Dryden's celebrated composition, but below the Odes of Wordsworth on Immortality and of Milton on the Nativity, which still remain peerless and without a rival."—Congregationalist, May 1st, 1880.
"A high devout purpose and wide human sympathy ennoble all the writer's work, and his clear language and quiet music will retain his audience."—Nineteenth Century, August, 1880.
"In all that respects technical points, certainly the most finished work we have yet had from the author's hand, and here and there the phrasing is exquisite. For ambitious aims, and for art which so far has justified those aims, for elevation and refinement, these poems are in advance of any of the author's former works."—British Quarterly Review, July, 1880.
"Any notice of recent poetry would be inadequate without a reference to the 'Ode of Life.' The only fault we have to find with this really remarkable effort—a sort of expansion of Wordsworth's famous Ode—is that it is rather too long for its ideas; but it possesses power, sweetness, occasional profundity, and unmistakable music. It is, when all is said and done, a true 'Ode,' sweeping the reader along as the ode should do, and
'Growing like Atlas, stronger for its load.'
It appears to us to bring definite proof that the writer's pretensions have not been over-stated."—Contemporary Review, February, 1881.