"I will concentrate now," he thought, "since they say I am too loose and too diffuse; cut away nine-tenths of all I write, and leave out every word I can possibly omit.

I will not express completely what I think; I shall only suggest it by an illustration.

And if anything occur to me likely to illuminate it, I shall not add it afterwards but insert it in a parenthesis.

I will make a new tongue for my poetry." And the result was the style and the strange manner in which _Sordello_ was written.

This partly excuses its obscurity, if deliberation can be an excuse for a bad manner in literature.