After the "Amores for Cassandre" (1552), in which the French Renaissance poet sings the praises of a Florentine banker’s daughter, and the "Amores for Marie" (1556), which tell of the poet's unrequited love for a pretty fifteen-year-old peasant girl, Ronsard programmatically connects in his late work from 1578 to these two sonnet cycles. It was Caterina de' Medici, the Queen of France, who encouraged the poet to woo her maid Hélène de Surgères through a commissioned work - however, these declarations of love also went unheard. Thus, Ronsard once again celebrates, under the influence of Petrarch, the platonic love for a female figure in the "Sonnets for Hélène," whose features often resemble those of the beautiful Helen of Troy. The bilingual volume also includes all scattered amores, presenting the entire love poetry.