When Dante Gabriel Rossetti acquired a wombat (circa 1869), his sister Christina was amongst the most enraptured Londoners in her response to the Antipodean creature. As usual with Christina, she immediately penned an Effusion, others would say an Ode, this time in Italian. All good odes open with an O. “O Uommibatto,” she exclaims, “Agil, giocondo, / Che ti sei fatto/ Irsuto e tondo!” Let’s unpack that. Her impression is spontaneous (D.G. himself said she was the more spontaneous poet), espying how the wombat is agile and carefree. One biographer, Mary Sandars (1930), translates ‘giocondo’ as frisky, which I suggest she’s used to rhyme with tricksy, however ‘giocondo’ comes closest to joyous, Betty Flowers’ word in the Penguin Complete Poems (2003). Fans of Leonardo da Vinci will notice the connection with his most famous portrait, and who is to say Christina does not have La Gioconda in mind upon meeting this mysterious and happy being? How you have grown hairy and round, is the gi