"This bilingual edition of Sonnets of Love & Death introduces today's readers to the intriguing world of Jean de Sponde, a neglected sixteenth-century poet who has at last taken his proper place in the pantheon of French poets. David R. Slavitt's finely crafted translation respects both the content and form of Sponde's original while deftly employing contemporary English poetics that appeal to modern sensibilities.".

"Considered one of the most important poets of the Renaissance period and a precursor to John Donne, in his poetry Sponde reflects the tensions - both stylistic and philosophical - of his time. This collection of sonnets, abounding in metaphor, paradox, antithesis, and hyperbole, is a restless personal exploration of the body and the spirit, of the concrete and the abstract, of passion and anguish"--BOOK JACKET.