SOURCE: Review of Safie; An Eastern Tale. Monthly Review 75 (September 1814): 60-5.

In the following essay, the reviewer praises the talent Reynolds demonstrates in his first major work but faults the poet for too closely imitating Lord Byron.

We believe that this is Mr. Reynolds's first appearance at our tribunal, and we congratulate him on that introduction being sanctioned by a dedication to Lord Byron, whose style and manner it appears to be his principal aim to copy. If with the style and expression the noble Lord's genius and power of thought could be successfully attained, no object could be more worthy of a young author's ambition: but it must never be forgotten that originality is of itself one primary constituent of genius, and that the most successful copy can never be equal to its original. The finishing may even be higher, the colouring brighter, the effect in every...