In this collection the verses of Pietro Fratini tell of empires and emperors, philosophers, wise men and Greek and Roman poets; in short, it is a poem that not only inspires but questions classicism.
Within the sections, diptychs, triptychs and references between characters mark the rhythm, giving the collection an agile and varied breath. The author unmasks his own sources, exhibits them without shame, as the last sixty years of poetry have accustomed us to.
What are they trying to tell us, then, these characters that are given a voice, so different from each other?
Fratini, like his contemporary poets, can no longer hold hold of great ideologies, or ideological linguistic experiments, choices that instead have characterized the great poets of the second half of the 20th century.
(from the Introduction by Andrea Bongiorno)