Although Arturo Onofri remains an isolated figure in the history of Italian poetry, he properly belongs in the international ranks of the modernists who, like Ezra Pound with his technique of "superposition," endeavored to communicate experience by reflecting on a series of visual pictures. Throughout his brief but extremely productive writing career, Onofri attempted to create a visionary, contemplative form of poetry that would express the disorder and complexity of human life, while he also sought a sense of eternal truth beyond the chaos of everyday life. He eventually saw his role as that of a prophet who must point out a realm of spiritual significance that could redeem the wearisome cycles of reincarnated existences. His poetry of multifaceted images was to serve as a means of illumination for humankind, to free them from an attachment to the imprisoning material world so they could know the joyousness of...