“An age-worn poet dying amid strangers in a humble village
home, leaves the record of his life in a pile of manuscript
poems. These are claimed by a friend and comrade of the poet,
but, at the request of the cottagers, he reads them over before
taking them away. The poet’s life is divided into seven books
or ‘notes,’ because seven notes seem to make up the gamut
of life.... This is the simple but unique plan, ... which
... forms but the mere outline of a remarkably fine study of
the hopes, aspirations, and disappointments of life, ... an
American modern life.... The author sees poetry, and living
poetry, where the most of men see prose.... The objection, so
often brought against our young poets, that form outweighs
the thought, cannot be urged in this instance, for the poems
of Prof. Raymond are full of keen and searching comments
upon life. Neither can the objection be urged of the lack of
the human element. ‘A Life in Song’ is not only dramatic in
tendency, but is singularly realistic and acute.... The volume
will appeal to a large class of readers by reason of its clear,
musical, flexible verse, its fine thought, and its intense
human interest.”—_Boston Transcript._
“Professor Raymond is no dabbler in the problem of the human
spirit, and no tyro in the art of word painting, as those who
know his prose works can testify. These pages contain a mine
of rich and disciplined reflection, and abound in beautiful
passages.”—_Hartford Theological Seminary Record._
“Here are lines which, if printed in letters of gold upon the
front of every pulpit, and practised by every one behind one,
would transform the face of the theological world.... In short,
if you are in search of ideas that are unconventional and
up-to-date, get ‘A Life in Song,’ and read it.”—_Unity._
“Some day Dr. Raymond will be universally recognized as one of
the leaders in the new thought-movement.... He is a poet in
the truest sense. His ideals are ever of the highest, and his
interpretation is of the clearest and sweetest. He has richness
of genius, intensity of human feeling, and the refinement of
culture. His lines are alive with action, luminous with thought
and passion, and melodious with music.”—_Cleveland World._
“The main impulse and incident of the life are furnished by the
enlistment of the hero in the anti-slavery cause. The story of
his love is also a leading factor, and is beautifully told. The
poem displays a mastery of poetic rhythm and construction, and,
as a whole, is pervaded by the imaginative quality which lifts
‘a life’ into the region of poetry,—the peculiar quality which
marks Wordsworth.”—_Christian Intelligencer._
“It is a great work, and shows that America has a great
poet.... A century from now this poem will be known and
quoted wherever fine thought is appreciated, or brave deeds
sung.”—_Western Rural._