“It is to be supposed that, as with ‘Pelle,’ this volume is but one of several dealing with the same characters, and that later Ditte will develop into womanhood. If that be so, Mr Nexö has made an interesting first movement, though it may be hoped that later ones may have the contrast of greater lightness; if this be all, then it can only be regarded as an unfinished fantasia.”
+ − The Times [London] Lit Sup p701 O 28 ’20 480w
NICHOLS, ROBERT MALISE BOWYER. Aurelia, and other poems. *$2 Dutton 821
20–15351
“The sequence of ‘Sonnets to Aurelia’ gives the story of a disappointed lover with his mistress whose falseness, though ugly, intensifies the helpless passion of the man. The form of the sonnet in which the poet tells his story is Shakspearean.”—Boston Transcript
“Mr Nichols, like many of the minor Elizabethan lyrists, uses the fourteen lines of the sonnet simply for the sake of their sound, their rich baroque handsomeness of appearance. That is the principal and, to our mind, damning defect of his sonnets. They have no substance. The fountains are dry, the parched stone faces open their mouths to no purpose; we are at a loss to see why the monument was built.”
− Ath p765 Je 11 ’20 1200w
“Among Mr Nichols’s most potent qualities the quality of vision is the steadiest and strongest. Among the most recent English poets he is the richest in this endowment.” W. S. B.
+ Boston Transcript p6 S 8 ’20 1200w