Florence on a Certain Night, and Other Poems

In Short

Coningsby Dawson’s collection moves through dramatic monologues, medieval-style ballads, and spiritual lyrics to explore the friction between fleeting earthly desire and divine permanence. Beginning with Leonardo da Vinci’s dark night of reflection in Renaissance Florence, the volume shifts across tragic romances in isolated hill-towers, elegies for lost friends, and intimate prayers to Christ. Dawson captures the despair of unfinished artistic ambitions and the sudden realization that true peace lies beyond human fame. Its timeless pull rests in its stark, aching honesty about grief, aging, and the quiet pursuit of unblemished love.

The Story

The volume opens in Renaissance Florence, where Leonardo da Vinci sits alone in his studio listening to a reveller in the street sing a carnival song composed years earlier by the late Lorenzo de' Medici. The song warns that youth is short and that love is a flower whose true color—white for pure grace or red for fatal lust—is only known after it dies. Listening to the refrain, Leonardo reflects bitterly on his long career. He recalls his youthful dreams of flying to the sun, his endless search through the stars for God, and his compulsive habit of leaving masterpieces unfinished. While Michelangelo races aggressively toward fame and Raphael paints with joyful ease, Leonardo recognizes that his own endless craving for perfection has left him isolated, burdened by faded frescoes and abandoned statues.

Driven by Lorenzo’s song and a sudden impulse to grab happiness before death intervenes, Leonardo resolves to abandon his doubts and pursue Mona Lisa, the woman whose face he has painted for four years. He believes she is the sister of his soul, created by God to complete him. As he steps into the dark night to go to her, he encounters his friend Vitelli in the shadow of a gate. Excitedly, Leonardo reveals his intention to finish her portrait and claim her love at last, only for Vitelli to deliver a crushing blow: Mona Lisa has already been dead for three months.

From this tragic awakening, the book expands into a broader landscape of mythic narrative, elegiac loss, and devotional seeking. In "The Hill-Tower," a bloody medieval siege unfolds as Bianca of the yellow hair and her sister Celia defend a granite pass against Count Ugo’s army. Surrounded by dark knights, the lovers Corrado and Ciro pray for strength, but the brutal onslaught leaves their maiden court destroyed and Bianca dragged away to die in Rimini.

As the collection advances into personal and spiritual realms, the narrative voice turns inward. In poems like "A Brave Life" and "Unseen," the speaker mourns companions lost to early graves, leaning out into the night to speak with departed spirits. He walks alongside a gentle, shepherd-like Christ through quiet fields of clover, leaving the loud, deceptive "town of Fame" behind. The journey culminates in "Love at Last," where phantom ships navigate gray, silent seas beyond time, offering a final, peaceful reunion of souls far removed from earthly pain.

How It Unfolds

The song of Lorenzo A street singer beneath Leonardo’s window performs a haunting carnival song about the swift decline of youth and the fatal trap of earthly pleasure.

Leonardo’s reckoning The master painter catalogings his life's failures, contrasting his unfinished works and restless mind with the effortless grace of Raphael and the relentless ambition of Michelangelo.

The terrible news Determined to finally claim love with Mona Lisa before time runs out, Leonardo meets Vitelli in the street, only to learn she passed away three months earlier.

Siege at the hill-tower Bianca, Celia, Corrado, and Ciro hold a granite pass against Count Ugo’s knights, enduring horrific cruelties before their fortress falls to the enemy.

Wandering with the Christ-man Leaving worldly ambition behind, the speaker walks through gas-lit towns and open meadows with a compassionate Christ who comforts the sick and crippled.

Crossing the silent sea In a dreamlike twilight, two souls board a phantom barque and sail away from earthly sins and fears into a timeless, quiet sanctuary.

The People

Leonardo da Vinci A brilliant but tortured polymath who craves the impossible. He is tormented by his unfinished projects and his intellectual pride, eventually realizing too late that his fear of commitment cost him his ultimate chance at love.

Mona Lisa The elusive subject of Leonardo's four-year masterpiece. Though she never speaks directly, her changing smile and quiet grace come to mirror Leonardo's own soul before her sudden, quiet death.

Bianca A fair maiden accused of witchery because of her ivory beauty and sun-golden hair. She retreats to a remote pass to protect her people, maintaining her faith and dignity even as Count Ugo’s forces bring destruction to her door.

Corrado A devoted page of low birth who loves Bianca deeply. He fights valiantly against overwhelming odds on the ramparts of the hill-tower, willing to face death and his own ghostly premonitions to defend her.

The Shepherd Christ A gentle, humanized figure who wanders through peasant lands and modern cities, offering rest to crippled souls, bearing human pain in His own breast, and leading weary travellers out of the town of Fame.

In Its Own Voice

"I made me wings, but had not strength to fly."

— Leonardo da Vinci reflects on the overwhelming scope of his youthful ambitions and his inability to reach the divine.

"To-day I'd toil with fire in my brain / And paint away the faults of yesterday."

— Leonardo describes the exhausting cycle of artistic perfectionism that left his greatest works incomplete.

"Life is a round / Of languor and pain; / When Joy is found, / Go forth not again."

— A quiet verse offering shelter from the relentless chase of worldly glory and the dread of failure.

What It's Really About

Dawson’s collection examines the tragic cost of hesitation and the illusion of human ambition. Through Leonardo’s failure to love Mona Lisa while she lived, the poems argue that intellect and artistic perfection are hollow substitutes for immediate, courageous connection. The book repeatedly contrasts the loud, aggressive pursuit of worldly fame with the quiet, lasting truth found in love and spiritual surrender. Beneath the medieval romance and historical monologues lies an urgent question: how do fragile human beings find lasting peace in a world governed by decay, war, and the sudden arrival of death? The answer continually points away from pride and toward gentle self-sacrifice, quiet faith, and simple affection.

Why Read It Today

This volume offers a strikingly intimate look at human vulnerability, wrapping deep existential anxiety in graceful, accessible verse. Readers who appreciate historical dramatic monologues—especially those drawn to the atmosphere of the Italian Renaissance—will find Leonardo’s late-night confession deeply moving. Dawson balances dramatic historical storytelling with quiet, highly personal lyrics about grief, making the collection feel both grand and private.

The book moves at a deliberate, atmospheric pace. Modern readers should be prepared for period-typical poetic phrasing, frequent religious imagery, and dramatic tragic tropes involving early death and medieval sieges. Yet these archaic settings only heighten the emotional resonance of the central theme: the terror of realization coming too late. The vivid contrast between noisy ambition and quiet, starlit rest lingers long after the final page, offering a gentle reminder to value the fleeting beauty of the present.