The Early Italian Poets (Poetica)

Poetica 7 Dante Gabriel Rossetti's versions of early Italian poetry are masterpieces of the art of poetic translation. Although his work first appeared over a hundred years ago, it is still the fullest survey of the period's poetry. Cino da Pistoia, Guido Cavalcanti and a host of others are represented, but the centrepiece is the version of Dante's `The New Life', of which Ezra Pound wrote: `I saw that Rossetti had made a remarkable translation of the Vita Nuova, in some places improving (or at least enriching) the original; that he was indubitably the man "sent", or "chosen" for that particular job... Rossetti made his own language.' This edition includes a Foreword by John Wain, and an Introduction and Supplementary Notes by the medievalist and poet Sally Purcell.