"Mr Masefield is no common realist, but universalizes his tragedy in the
grand manner.... We are convinced that he is writing truly of human
nature, which is the vital thing.... The last few stanzas show us
pastoral poetry in the very perfection of simplicity."--_Spectator_.
"In 'The Widow in the Bye Street' all Mr Masefield's passionate love of
loveliness is utterly fused with the violent and unlovely story, which
glows with an inner harmony. The poem, it is true, ends on a note of
idyllism which recalls Theocritus; but this is no touch of eternal
decoration. Inevitably the story has worked towards this
culmination."--_Bookman_.