Personae

These poems trace a restless imagination moving between medieval song, dream-vision, and modern defiance. From the opening invocations of "Grace before Song" and "La Fraisne," poetry becomes an act of devotion and escape, a way to reach beauty beyond duty, exile, and ordinary life. The speaker repeatedly seeks kindred spirits, whether in the enchanted landscapes of "A Vision of Italy," the courtly longing of a Provençal crusader's love song, or the stylized tributes to troubadours, admired women, and wandering poets like Cino and Audiart. The collection deepens into elegy, wit, and spiritual struggle: Villon's dark bravado, Browning's forceful energy, and meditations on age, memory, and the afterlife of verse all suggest that song survives loss. Elsewhere, love appears as moon, fire, and sun; fame is hunted like the white stag; and city life, war, and poverty are rendered with sharp sympathy. Throughout, the poems blend lyric intensity, irony, myth, and classical resonance, insisting that poetry can still summon beauty, resistance, and lasting power. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.