Selected Poems by Giacomo Leopardi. (16 poems in the English
Translation) Leopardi's Canti were written in 1835. This collection of
lyric poetry is considered one of the most significant works of Italian
literature. The order of the poems here published in the English
translations by Alan Marshfield, Tim Chilcott, A. S. Kline, and
Frederick Townsend, does not follow their original position within the
structure of Leopardi's Canti. The 16 poems here published are the most
valuable versions from Leopardi's Canti, available in the English
language. Giacomo Leopardi, (born June 29, 1798, Recanati, Papal
States-died June 14, 1837, Naples), Italian poet, scholar, and
philosopher whose outstanding scholarly and philosophical works and
superb lyric poetry place him among the great writers of the 19th
century. Leopardi has aestheticized the theme of metaphysical
contemplation and placed emphasis on 'hope' as a fulcrum for all art,
the fall of which is anathema to the ego and for the World.