His prolific verse celebrating the high spiritual status of love between men and boys was remarkably well-received and favourably reviewed in his lifetime.

[6] He referred back to the university later to express an egalitarian view: "And to this day, I'm proud to say, my dear old alma mater / Cares little if you're rich or poor, or who may be your pater!

[21] Next to the vicarage he had the village boys dig out a swimming pool and pile the soil in the form of small mountains, to recreate his impression of Switzerland during a visit.

[29] Bradford was a lifelong friend of poet and priest Samuel Elsworth Cottam, with whom he had been an undergraduate classmate and who he had met again at the Anglican church in Paris, where they were both curates.

[36][37] Extolling the high spiritual status of romantic love between men and boys, Bradford advocates a new chivalry that transcends boundaries of class;[6] an aristocracy of lofty friendship that does not depend on pedigree.

This goes so far as to include the frequent use of personal names, the poems describing the narrator's dealings with a myriad of boys such as Eddie Worth, Merrivale White, Leslie de Lampton, Clinton Fane, Merivale Trelawney Bates, Steve Ailwyn, Our Jack, Will, Eric, Aubrey, Silvester, Joe and Jim, and so on.

[32] In a characterisation of the ambience of his verse, Paul I. Webb writes: "We follow him on moonlit assignations, don our boaters for picnics on the beach, and live – in our imaginations – in a world where the most passionate feelings are expressed by meaningful looks over the Earl Grey and Bath Olivers.

"[32] While optimistic in the main, Bradford occasionally turns polemic, as when he attacks some of the motivations for procreation: "Breed on with fury; pour your children in / Till every shop and factory be full, / And labour cheap.

"[42] Bradford's outspokenly and unapologetically homoerotic verse was well-received and favourably reviewed in major newspapers and journals during his lifetime – remarkably so, given the public hostility to homosexuality.

[6] Reasons for its widespread favourable reception may include a naïve or Platonic reading of the friendships extolled, as well as the prevalent esteem for a classical education, which gave an air of scholarship and respect to homosexuality as expressed in the rarefied world of poetry.

[32] In contrast, however, to the classical inspiration of much Uranian poetry, Bradford mostly eschewed mythological allusions and focused on contemporary life: "Talk about the Greeks' impeccability of form: / Give to me a Belton boy whose flesh and blood are warm.

The writer Dorothy L. Sayers, whose father was vicar of Christchurch near Nordelph, called Bradford "an entertaining little crank—and rather a dear", though finding his collections Passing the Love of Women and The New Chivalry unreadable.

"[34] Among later commentators on Bradford's poetry, Timothy d'Arch Smith considered that his "ideas were superior to his poetical abilities, but he had a good sense of rhythm and ... his verses rattle along in a breezy, unself-conscious, style".

[52] Rictor Norton recommended Bradford's poems of "leaping, rollicking freedom" to readers with "a penchant for good old-fashioned apple pandowdy like auntie used to make".

[42] Paul I. Webb found the poet's enthusiasms to be catching, noting that it is his "ability to reach out to us that makes Bradford so likeable a character, and which gives his poetry more depth than just a collection of amusingly camp pieces".

[57] One tale set in Russia, originally printed in The Boy's Own Paper in 1893, was posthumously published in a limited edition by Timothy d'Arch Smith (Boris Orloff: A Christmas Yarn, 1968).

To Arthur's distress, the narrator is obliged to go live in Russia, where he becomes friends with a wild little Russian boy, Boris Orloff, who reminds him of his English chum.