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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.
Lo seppi un giorno: or presso ed or lontano
me seguiva e la sua triste follia
l'uomo che amore flagellava invano.
Lo vidi ormare la mia stessa via,
sostare alle mie soste, con il volto
duro, e lo sguardo acuto di chi spia.
Egli andava col suo cuore sconvolto
pel desiderio fatto a sè tortura,
nulla godendo e disperando molto.
E non sapeva che la vana arsura
me pur struggeva, che un'angoscia eguale
fustigava la mia anima oscura,
ch'io pur morivo dello stesso male.