[4] Other themes include love, both romantic and familial, as in the poems "Kenangan Lama" ("Old Memories") and "Kuburan Bunda" ("Mother's Grave"), and the beauty of nature, as in "Lautan" ("Sea") and "Bulan" ("Moon").

[8] He occasionally changed words, including adding and subtracting letters, to suit his intended rhythm and tempo, such as by using "menung" instead of "menunggu" to say "wait".

[7] The socialist literary scholar Bakri Siregar wrote that Effendi drew the anti-colonial struggle well, with evocative imagery, in Bebasari.

[2] The Dutch scholar of Indonesian literature A. Teeuw wrote that Effendi, as a poet, was "amazing, especially because of his language which had no equal"[b] and efforts to break away from the traditional syair.

[3] However, Teeuw opined that Effendi did not play a large role in the further development of Indonesian literature; he found Sanusi Pane as the most influential poet of the time.