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The collection gathers lyrical sequences and sonnets in a confessional voice that probes modern female identity, desire, and social performance. One extended autobiographical sequence composed of many thirteen-line terzine reads like a novel without plot, tracing appetite, flirtation, indifference, and the exhilaration of urban fashion and nightlife; other poems, including more compact sonnets, record earlier romantic suffering and youthful passions. The speaker juxtaposes classical female archetypes with a contemporary Parisian model to explore ambivalence toward love, liberty, and reputation, using vivid sensory detail, psychological introspection, and recurring images of gaze, costume, jealousy, and theatricalized seduction.
Dicono presso ad ogni fiamma fatua:
— Che fuoco buono pe' tuoi freddi piedi!
e: — Che cuor pel tuo cuore! — ad ogni statua.
Cullano le mie noie: — O cari tedi —
cantilenano in coro, — o rari mali
per cui nessuno troverà rimedi!
M'agitano sul capo un frullo d'ali
e stupiscono: — Intendi? Chi è passato?
Sarà morte con falce o amor con strali?
Ma la voce sul mio sonno agitato
attenuano, bisbigliano un saluto,
zittiscono, e ciascun mi posa a lato
e dorme fra le mie chiome sperduto.