The early poems of Mr. Reade were distinguished by poetical
tempera. ment and a remarkable fluency both of words and verse; but they had so strong an imitative character of Byron, that it often took the shape of an echo. In his Revelations of Life, and especially in the smaller poems that follow, Mr. Reade has adopted a more independent style; but his fluency is still accompanied by a species of turgidity, which conceals a real justness of thought and originality of conception under a cloud of words, or sacrifices lucidity of expression to mere sound, from mistakenly confounding grandeur with gloomy vagueness. Where the nature of the subject compels more distinctness, the style has greater closeness with less efflorescence; but throughout the volume there are too many leaves and flowers with too little fruit.
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