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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.
Non so dov'ella era nascosta: forse
in fondo all'ombra vacua degli specchi.
Non la vidi ma il suo riso mi morse.
Sottile mi vibrò dentro gli orecchi
con qualche nota di canzonatura,
parve squillar dietro gli arazzi vecchi.
Così sentii l'ignota creatura
di voluttà, la preda di lussuria,
colei che imprime la sua traccia impura
E di gelo restai sotto la furia
del desiderio, mi difesi fiera
contr'ella che rideva acre un'ingiuria,
e contro chi gemeva una preghiera.