Dante's Lyric Poetry

'Dante's Lyric Poetry is a wonderful scholarly achievement. Barolini's essays teach us a wholly new way to approach Dante's verse.' -- William J. Kennedy, Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities, Department of Comparative Literature, Cornell University 'A prodigious and important work of scholarship by the leading expert on Dante's lyric poetry, Barolini's commentary is unrivaled in its interpretation of the themes and trajectory of Dante's poetic development. Lansing consistently finds just the right tone and diction in rendering Dante's verse.' -- Guy Raffa, Department of French and Italian, University of Texas at Austin

A wide-ranging and intelligent examination of one of the most important poets in the Western tradition, this book will be of interest to scholars and poetry-lovers alike.

The first comprehensive English translation and commentary on Dante’s early verse to be published in almost fifty years, Dante’s Lyric Poetry includes all the poems written by the young Dante Aligheri between c. 1283 and c. 1292. Essays by Teodolinda Barolini guide the reader through the new verse translations by Richard Lansing, illuminating Dante’s transformation from a young courtly poet into the writer of the vast and visionary Commedia.

Barolini’s commentary exposes Dante’s lyric poems as early articulations of many of the ideas in the Commedia, including the philosophy and psychology of desire and its role as motor of all human activity, the quest for vision and transcendence, the frustrating search for justice on earth, and the transgression of boundaries in society and poetry. A wide-ranging and intelligent examination of one of the most important poets in the Western tradition, this book will be of interest to scholars and poetry-lovers alike.