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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.
Tu t'abbandoni, o pallida indolente,
nella ricca mollezza de' cuscini,
e in sonnolenta voluttà reclini
le ciglia gravi tediosamente,
quasi un'ebrezza tenue la tua mente
oziosa per strane ombre trascini,
o velino i tuoi verdi occhi felini
soporiferi aromi d'oriente.
O sei come una bella agile tigre,
che s'allunghi a giacer sotto una palma,
con sue movenze regalmente pigre.
Ma non t'insidia il serpe tentatore,
e tu per scuoter la tua uggiosa calma
ti lasceresti pur suggere il cuore.