In 1821, in a letter about the cantos III, IV, and V, the poet P.B. Shelley told Byron of his "wonder and delight" at the presentation of events, because in the composition and style, "this poem carries with it at once the stamp of originality and defiance of imitation. Nothing has ever been written like it in English, nor, if I may venture to prophesy, will there be, unless carrying upon it the mark of a secondary and borrowed light. . . . You are building up a drama such as England has not yet seen, and the task is sufficiently noble and worthy of you." About canto V, Shelley told Byron that "Every word has the stamp of immortality. . . . It fulfils, in a certain degree, what I have long preached of producing — something wholly new and relative to the age, and yet surpassingly beautiful".