SOURCE: An introduction to The Poetry of Sordello, edited and translated by James J. Wilhelm, Garland Publishing, Inc., 1987, pp. xi-xxxi.

Wilhelm is an American medievalist and Pound scholar. In the following excerpt from his introduction to The Poetry of Sordello, he speculates that Dante was inspired by the vitality and variety he found in Sordello's works, as evidenced in the invective satire of the troubadour's sirventes, the political diatribe of his "Lament for Lord Blacatz," and the skepticism of his debate poems. Wilhelm also addresses the pronounced influence of Sordello on later poets, including Browning and Pound.

Artistic Achievement

The poetry of Sordello seems to have been rated more highly by other poets than by critics. Dante, in his De vulgari eloquentia, singles out Sordello as a man who "had great eloquence, not only in the writing of poetry, but also in any number of other forms" (1.15.2), by...