The idea for the ode was probably born in the first few months of 1802, after Antonietta Fagnani Arese suffered an illness, but the composition was completed in the following months and published in the edition of Poesie that was brought out in Milan by the publisher De Stefanis in April 1803. The poet took inspiration from the recovery of a beloved women who had regained her beauty, but he also introduces existential and philosophical themes influenced by the study and work carried out in that period: the translation and study of Lucretius and the comment on, and translation of, Coma Berenices. The theme of the celebration of beauty, understood as a physical and spiritual entity which finds its fulfilment in poetry that is capable of expressing its value, is linked to points of reflection that are also present in contemporary sonnets: the Lucretian theme of materiality and the absurdity of human existence; meditation on the frailty of everything that dissolves into the nothing "of eternal peace", which is also derived from Lucretius.
The ode is made up of 16 stanzas of five seven-syllable lines and a hendecasyllable at the end; the first nine stanzas are devoted to describing the beauty of Fagnani Arese that flourishes again after the illness; the following five stanzas contain celebrations of beauty and poetry, understood as absolute values capable of mitigating the turmoil of human existence and of being sublimate in their extreme frailty. Highlighting his Greek birth, in the final two stanzas the poet presents himself as a candidate to interpret a poem that, following the example of the ancients, manages to create an eternal memory to combat the unavoidable fragility of every earthy thing and its annulment into the “nulla eterno” (eternal nothing).
The turn of expression aims to create sought-after, unusual, elegant effects; the language is characterized by an special musicality due to the repetitions, sounds, alliterations and enjambements that create a harmonious whole which, however, is always sustained and solemn, thanks in part to the use of rare, erudite words.
All’amica risanata (To the healed friend)
