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The volume opens with two essays that analyze the poet's Hellenic revival and his classic-realist aesthetic, situating his work amid tensions between ecclesiastical influence, chivalric import, and native national feeling. It then presents translations of numerous poems—hymns, sonnets, dedicatory pieces, patriotic and religious lyrics, and descriptive sketches—covering classical subjects, Dantean and Virgilian allusions, personal reflection, and social observation. Together the critical essays and translated poems emphasize classical forms, historical memory, and a restrained realism that seeks to renew Italian literary identity.
Breaking his way through the white clouds in the azure,
The sun laughs out and cries:
“O Springtime, come!”
Across the greening hills with placid murmurs
The streams sing back to the breeze:
“O Springtime, come!”
“O Springtime, come!” to his heart the poet is saying,
While gazing, O pure Lalage, in thine eyes!
Odi Barbare.