One of France's most influential love poets, Pierre de Ronsard embraced a variety of themes from politics, science, and philosophy to bawdy and risqué material that outraged religious reformers. Drawing on classical and Italian poetic models and on powerful imagery from ancient mythology, Ronsard created verse that revolutionized the French poetic tradition. His style ranges from the sublime rhetoric of the Pindaric odes and hymns to the lyricism and sensuality of his sonnets. Ronsard's poetry has influenced many twentieth-century writers and artists, including W. B. Yeats, Sylvia Plath, and Henri Matisse. The dual-language format of this new edition provides English-speaking readers with an enhanced perspective on one of the most innovative voices in the history of European poetry.