Petrarch: Songs and Sonnets

I saw the tracks of angels in the earth,
The beauty of heaven walking by itself on the world.
 
The great fourteenth-century poet's lyric and love poems are presented as living poetry in Nicholas Kilmer's powerful and moving versions. His selection convinces us that, as he puts it, "Petrarch deserves to be valued as a real man, a careful thinker, a good poet." Free in form yet holding close to the central impulses of Petrarch's inspiration, Kilmer's "readings" in this bilingual edition present Petrarch as a confessional poet, but one who is a humane moralist of startling honesty.
 
Nicholas Kilmer, former dean of the Swain College of Art and Design in New Bedford, Massachussetts, has made his living as an art dealer and curator since leaving teaching in 1982. He also writes mysteries set in the art world.