Abbey was treated quite respectfully in the English press: the 1879 edition of his collected poems quotes such comments as "His book has sterling merit and evinces soundness of heart and facility of rhyme," from the London Morning Post; "Mr. Abbey tells his story clearly and effectively; his sympathies are manly, warm, and true," from the London Academy; and "The stories . . .
are told with much beauty of diction and with rich poetic feeling, and throughout them all runs a high moral purpose," from the Leeds Mercury (unnumbered pages following p. 149 of Phaëthon). Especially admired was Abbey's widely anthologized inspirational poem "What Do We Plant? "—a poem that was often chosen as a recitation piece and that was set to music by Aaron Copland for chorus and piano and published in 1941.A genial figure, Abbey was well liked by both his literary and his business associates; his warm obituary in the Bookman (1912) notes "a most generous friendliness coupled with a shy modesty" (p. 323), and according to the Magazine of Poetry, vol.