Fete pierdute

Fete pierdute looks at love and loss in Romanian women’s poems. Al. Cistelecan studies how these poems treat grief and death. He also asks how they express the pain of being left. This book of literary criticism is for readers drawn to Romanian poems. It focuses on how those poems deal with love.

Cistelecan draws on Vladimir Streinu’s three types of lyric verse. These are Salomean, Sapphic and Didonian. He adds two more types: Dianic and Magdalenian. Yet he finds that Dido’s theme of forsaken love prevails. In his view, many poets see love as a stark choice. It brings either fulfilment or death. Few take a Pauline view of love. Early joy often fades into a lasting sense of being entombed. He links this sense of being shut in a tomb to Bacovian gloom. The book forms part of the Rotonda series.