Guido Cavalcanti is a key figure in the early development of Italian poetry, along with his younger friend Dante Alighieri.

Cavalcanti is also essential to the course of modernist poetry in English, influencing, among others, Ezra Pound and Louis Zukofsky.

The Selected Poetry of Guido Cavalcanti: A Critical English Edition provides the best introduction in English to this medieval Italian poet. The selection of annotated verse translations includes the famous Donna me prega and the correspondence sonnets to Dante. The introduction covers thematic and metrical issues, as well as examining the rich history of Cavalcanti in English.