"Victorian half-wits claimed that this poem was obscure, and the
predecessors of Z,Y,X,Q.N and company used to pride themselves on grinning
through the horse-collar: 'Only two lines of Sordello were intelligible.' "
-- EP, ABC of Reading, Exhibits, "To Recapitulate"

Tim Romano

At 11:09 AM 5/22/03, Carrol Cox wrote:
>I followed it back to Sordello. It's been 40 years since I read it, but
>I remember it as a delightful poem. There is an interesting anecdote
>concerning it (true or not I don't know, and I don't remember even where
>I picked it up). Some gentleman back in the 19th century became very
>ill, and for several days while hospitalized he was delerious. When he
>came back to himself there was a pile of books left at his bedside table
>by a friend. The first one he picked up was Sordello, which he had never
>heard of. After reading a few lines he frantically called for the nurse.
>He feared he was losing his mind.
>
>Carrol