Emblems of Desire

"Richard Sieburth has performed a miracle of literary invention. He has made these poems sing."-Paul Auster A forgotten masterpiece of French poetry, Emblems of Desire is a selection of 449 love poems first published in Lyons in 1544. Full of passionate ironies and charged obscurity, Maurice Sceve is considered a sixteenth-century Stephane Mallarme. His oblique self-portraiture laid the groundwork for many contemporary poets. Poet Michael Palmer calls Richard Sieburth "one of our finest living scholars and translators." Maurice Sceve (c.1500a??c.1564) was at the center of Lyonnese coterie that elaborated the theory of spiritual love.

Maurice Scève (c.1500–c.1564) was at the center of Lyonnese côterie that elaborated the theory of spiritual love.