Meanwhile Aldrich carried on with his private writing, both in prose (the sort of writing found in most books) and verse (poetry, songs, etc). He had many skills. He was well known for his form in poetry. His many books of verse, mainly "The Ballad of Babie Bell" (1856), "Pampinea, and Other Poems" (1861), "Cloth of Gold" (1874), "Flower and Thorn" (1876), "Friar Jerome's Beautiful Book" (1881), "Mercedes and Later Lyrics" (1883), "Wyndham Towers" (1889), and the collected editions of 1865, 1882, 1897 and 1900, showed him to be a poet of lyrical skill and light touch. Critics said that his work was like Robert Herrick's.