Abba Abba

Anthony Burgess imagines a meeting, or perhaps only a near miss, between two poets in Rome during the winter of 1820 to 1821. John Keats is seen in the final stretch of his illness, lodged in a house at the top of the Spanish Steps. The other is Giuseppe Gioacchino Belli, a formidable poet whose name meant little beyond the city walls. The first half follows both men, moving between Keats and Belli. The second half turns to Belli's own work, presented as verse in Burgess's translation.