Unclear expression

Hi,

Can you provide a context for this phrase, please?

Clive

He tells of himself, in his poems, that "he lisped in numbers"; and used to say, that he could not remember the time when he began to make verse.

As far as I can work out, it means "speak in metrical rhythms" (http://books.google.co

Or maybe he means, since many very young children don't speak clearly, that he's been doing this since he was a tiny child, and has no clear memory of when he started to write poems.

But you wouldn't have inferred it, had you not been given the context, would you? I mean, it's not common in modern English at all, right?

Anonymousit's not common in modern English at all, right?

No. Almost unknown, I'd say.