Over the course of two centuries (mid-18th – mid-20th centuries), Western poetry has undergone a radical transformation. Poets gain unprecedented freedom: they begin to write texts that are deliberately dark in meaning, break the rules of meter and syntax, update their vocabulary, and eliminate the distance between themselves and the lyrical hero. In his book, historian and literary theorist Guido Mazzoni reconstructs the key stages of this metamorphosis and interprets it as a symptom of profound historical changes. Turning to poetic texts of New and Contemporary times, belonging to the Italian and, more broadly, European tradition, the author seeks answers to a number of questions, among which one of the most important: how did poetry become the most self-centered genre of modern literature? Guido Mazzoni (b. 1967) – Professor at the University of Siena (Italy).