Emblems of Desire

by Maurice Scève, Richard Sieburth (Translator)

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, Scève is considered a sixteenth-century Mallarmé. His oblique self-portraiture laid the groundwork for many contemporary poets. This edition is accompanied by fifty emblems created by the author. The illustrations and Latin mottoes contained within each emblem offer poignant, and often witty, responses to his poems.

Genres: Poetry, France

224 pages, Paperback

First published October 9, 2002

About the author

Maurice Scève (vers 1501 - vers 1564) est un poète français du Renaissance.

Maurice Scève (c. 1501–c. 1564) was a French poet from the Renaissance period.

Reviews

[Illiterate]

Sceve suffers the pains of unrequited love without worldly compensation or divine redemption.

[Steven]

Eyes, afire, whirling like weathercocks; suns and moons and bodies in orbit.

Would benefit from a close reading in the Bachelardian mode.