SOURCE: A review of 'The Sceptered Flute: Songs of India ', in Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, Vol. XXXV, No. III, December, 1929, pp. 169-70.

In the following review of The Sceptered Flute: Songs of India, the anonymous critic notes that Naidu's poetry needs further development but nonetheless possesses the qualities of "high inspiration. "

These songs of India [in The Sceptered Flute: Songs of India] have been transmuted into the language of the western world, and at first glance the imagery and allusions seem no more genuine than those which we have found in many English imitators of oriental mystery and glamour. But a more careful reading will show that behind these quiet reflective lyrics lies a profound native understanding of India, and a poetic insight which is capable of controlling many subtle aspects of mystical experience. The statements and analogies are always quiet, uneventful, subdued to nostalgic melancholy...