R400314A. Sordello.

The Spectator, 14 March 1840, p. 257.

As reprinted in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 4, 416.

What this poem may be in its extent we are unable to say, for we cannot read it. Whatever may be the poetical spirit of Mr. Browning, it is so overlaid in Sordello by digression, affectation, obscurity, and all the faults that spring, it would seem, from crudity of plan and a self-opinion which will neither cull thoughts nor revise composition, that the reader—at least a reader of our stamp—turns away. The scene is laid in Italy, during the age of Frederick the Second, when the country was in its palmy state, and the contest of the Guelphs and Ghibellines in full vigour.

Reviewed:

Sordello (RB), London: Moxon, 1840.

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