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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.
E all'orizzonte s'indugiavan vele
quasi sospese fra due cieli chiari,
quasi sommerse fra due calmi mari,
tese, come all'amore anime anele.
Le feriva un ardor quasi crudele
di sole basso, un saettar di rari
dardi diritti d'un fulgor di fari
spruzzava d'oro le lor bianche tele.
Poi le colmava l'ombra di non so
che molli fiori, e mentre una spariva,
scorgevasi ancor l'altra or sì, or no.
Pareva ognuna un'anima che va,
dopo un amor che la rïarse viva,
a smarrirsi in sua fredda libertà.