What do superscript circles mean in poetry? I am reading a book on the collected works of Alexander Pope. Peppered throughout his poems are little superscript circles or degrees symbols, seen in this image of the text (transcribed below) What do these mean? > So by false learning is good sense defaced: > Some are bewildered in the maze of schools, > And some made coxcombs Nature meant but fools. > In search of wit these lose their common sense, > And then turn critics in their own defence:

The book I am reading is "Alexander Pope: The Major Works," published by Oxford World's Classics, with introduction and notes by Pat Rogers.

I looked everywhere in the book but the obvious section near the beginning titled "Note on the text". This section explains

> Notes at the end are signalled by a degree sign in the text.

So the degree sign has nothing to do with poetry but rather is the notation used by Pat Rogers to indicate commentary given at the end of the book.