“In the long run his book is not simple enough. He will be useful to a certain kind of teacher; but he will move few students and he will enkindle no poets.” Mark Van Doren
− + Nation 112:sup241 F 9 ’21 120w
“The fault of the book is that it contains too many long quotations from other critics. But this very fault, in the present instance, makes the book a presentation of the best modern critical thought on the lyric. He will be a bold man who attempts to cover Professor Perry’s field for many years to come.” C. E. Andrews
+ − N Y Evening Post p5 O 23 ’20 1100w
“Professor Perry’s volume is suggestive and stimulating. It will be useful to the classroom teacher, to the solitary student and to the average reader, who will gain from it knowledge certain to increase his enjoyment of verse.” Brander Matthews
+ N Y Times p6 S 12 ’20 2000w
“He gives an unusually clear analysis, supported by rich and apt quotation, of the effects of poetry upon the reader. The value of his essay lies in its vivid ability to provide us with those moments of lucid understanding in which poetic experience is restored to us.” L. R. Morris
+ Outlook 126:377 O 27 ’20 400w
“He is first of all a collector, secondly, an assayer, thirdly, and a little less willingly, an arbiter, and, only incidentally and reluctantly, a reasoner or controversialist.” O. W. Firkins
+ − Review 3:501 N 24 ’20 2000w