ABSTRACT
This chapter reconsiders the context and structure of the poem, reviews the main critical approaches to the text and examines its textual practices and what poets can tell us about Angelo Poliziano's poetics, postmodern or otherwise. In terms of structure, Polizianos Stanze per la giostra contains a total of 171 octaves, a curiously similar number of stanzas to those in Luigi Pulci's joust poem. The general thrust of critical inquiry into the poem has concentrated on thematics and structure. In terms of theme, critics have predictably highlighted the centrality of the theme of love, and the mythical atmosphere with which Poliziano endows the poem. If concepts such as Fortuna and Virtu, and the stages of neoplatonic love are topoi of Renaissance literature, there are, however, also a number of less predictable elements in the poem that share striking similarities with postmodern textual practices.
