Rime

Before he wrote the Divine Comedy, before he became the supreme poet of Christendom, Dante Alighieri was a young man in love. The Rime collects the lyrical poems of his formative years, verses written in the fever heat of devotion to Beatrice Portinari and shaped by the sophisticated poetic traditions of thirteenth-century Florence. Here we find Dante as apprentice and rival, absorbing the intricate styles of Guittone, Guinizzelli, and Cavalcanti, then surpassing them. These are poems of longing and surrender, of philosophical inquiry and political outrage, composed in the volgaro that Dante himself would elevate to the language of empire and salvation. The collection includes verses that would later be woven into the Vita Nova, where Dante first told the story of his encounter with the girl who would haunt his imagination for life. Reading these poems, we witness the forging of a voice that would eventually reshape Western literature. For anyone who has loved and lost, or anyone who wonders how a poet becomes immortal, these early songs offer the answer: begin with passion, perfect the craft, and never stop listening to the music of language.