Unguarded Gates and Other Poems Characteristic of Aldrich's poetry, this collection of poems on conventional subjects and in conventional forms nevertheless displays Aldrich's erudition and breadth of experience in the world.

The poem "Prelude" makes possible reference to Aldrich's time at Pfaff's in the lines,
Later, amid the city's din
And toil and wealth and want and sin,
They followed me from street to street,
The dreams that made my boyhood sweet.
As in the silence-haunted glen,
So, mid the crowded ways of men,
Strange lights my errant fancy led,
Strange watchers watched beside my bed. (10)