In the text, the poet's discourse centres on 'variations' of a few fundamental themes, among which predominates, from the very first poem, the theme of death. This poetry tends to resolve itself into an oscillatory movement of lights and shadows, a movement which on the one hand reflects the changeability of reality -- it is not by chance that Sereni inserts on the inside cover, in an almost programmatic way, this line from Montaigne: 'Fluctuating and changeable life' -- and on the other, the contrasts and changes in the poet's spirit.