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When E. M. Forster published, in 1923, his small book of Alexandrian sketches called PHAROS AND PHARILLON, he included a short essay on the poetry of Cavafy—or Kōnstantionos Petrou Kabaphēs, to give the Greek form of his name. The poet was described as he was about to begin an interminable sentence dealing with the duplicity of the Emperor Alexius Comnenus in the year 1096. With great charm and sympathy Forster then proceeded to indicate his own appreciation of Cavafy’s poetry. But though a few people, including W. H. Auden, valued this poetry highly, it remained almost unknown outside the Greek world.