SOURCE: "The Works of Richard Middleton," in The Bookman, London, Vol. XLII, No. 250, July, 1912, pp. 172-73.

In the following review of Poems and Songs and The Ghost Ship, and Other Stories, MacKenzie lauds the strength of Middleton's prose while suggesting that his poetry lacks "nerve and vigour.'"

One rises from the reading of [Poems and Songs and The Ghost Ship and Other Stories] with the feeling that the end of Richard Middleton came all too soon; that his passage under the stars finished at too early an hour; that his nine and twenty years were but so much promise; and that full achievement lay just beyond the short Night he did not fear but rather sought. One feels that; and yet the feeling may be but a will o' the wisp to lead us astray; very likely it is. Must we consider the man and his work...