 Head describes the work as unique in its time for its compact intimacy, and considers it Holst's most successful attempt to end the domination of Wagnerian chromaticism in his music.Dickinson considers it a significant step, "not towards opera, but towards an idiomatic pursuit of [Holst's] vision".Of the Kālidāsa texts, Dickinson dismisses "The Cloud Messenger" (1910–12) as an "accumulation of desultory incidents, opportunistic dramatic episodes and ecstatic outpourings" which illustrate the composer's creative confusion during that period; the "Two Eastern Pictures" (1911), in Dickinson's view, provide "a more memorable final impression of Kālidāsa".