James Elroy Flecker (in The Cambridge Review): “Mr. Goldring is a young poet; his technique in these days, when so high a standard is set, is careless ... yet one feels that a book like his ‘Country Boy’ ought to sell thousands, not mere hundreds, so full it is of the joy of life, of modern love and sorrow. It is a book about the people, for the people. It is full of the magic of proper names:

Is there not all the honey and sweetness and summer of the West Country in the sound of her—‘little Rose from Yeovil.’ Could anything give the weariness of suburban pavements, yet make them sublime, better than this:

For he knows, as all true modern poets know, that the world has become a fairy world again, and that the name of Camden Town can haunt us as much as Xanadu, nay more. We cannot place him with Mr. Yeats, Mr. Housman or Mr. Masefield: but he should be loved by thousands, and the student of the future will treasure his work as a document of fine English sentiment and feeling long after our Francis Thompson, our Watson and our Trench are forgotten.”

Birmingham Daily Post: “If Mr. Douglas Goldring does not belie the promise of his first book, a good deal will be heard of him, and the attractively produced little volume before us will become precious to the collector. What matters above all else in a young poet is personality—individuality of feeling and outlook. Possessing this, his style may safely be left to develop itself; and this quality is unmistakably present on every page of ‘A Country Boy, and Other Poems.’ ... Already his individuality of vision is beginning to make its own music.”

Edward Thomas: (In the London Bookman): “His book ‘Streets’ consists of experiments in capturing the soul, or one of the souls, of twenty or thirty London streets. In some he speaks of his own feeling towards them; in others he speaks for them as if he were an inhabitant. His methods vary almost as much as his streets, from the downright to the romantic, but he is invariably interesting, often brilliant.”

Sunday Times: “Mr. Douglas Goldring has caught the glamour of London’s highways and by-ways ... there is real poetry in this slender volume, and Mr. Goldring has the art of suffusing with ecstasy apparently commonplace things....”

Evening Standard: “Poems of London streets remarkable for their freshness. They are short and impressionistic, at times suggesting comparison with the work of Mr. Davies and Mr. James Stephens.... But the poet has his own thoughts, and his own methods of expression admirably suited to them. This little volume deserves recognition.”

Morning Post: “Mr. Goldring’s book has been a great comfort to us. All lovers of London will love it.”

Rebecca West (Star): “I insist on saying that his volume ‘Streets’ contains some of the loveliest verse that has ever been written about London.”

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