Selected Poems by Giacomo Leopardi. (16 poems in the English Translation) Leopardi's Canti were written in 1835. This collection of lyric poetry is considered one of the most significant works of Italian literature. The order of the poems here published in the English translations by Alan Marshfield, Tim Chilcott, A. S. Kline, and Frederick Townsend, does not follow their original position within the structure of Leopardi's Canti. The 16 poems here published are the most valuable versions from Leopardi's Canti, available in the English language. Giacomo Leopardi, (born June 29, 1798, Recanati, Papal States-died June 14, 1837, Naples), Italian poet, scholar, and philosopher whose outstanding scholarly and philosophical works and superb lyric poetry place him among the great writers of the 19th century. Leopardi has aestheticized the theme of metaphysical contemplation and placed emphasis on 'hope' as a fulcrum for all art, the fall of which is anathema to the ego and for the World.