 The title of the collection, ("silvae" meaning "forest" or "raw material") was used to describe the draft of a poet's work which was composed impromptu in a moment of strong inspiration and which was then revised into a polished, metrical poem.This suggests that the "Silvae" are revised, impromptu pieces of occasional poetry which were composed in the space of a few days' time.There are thirty-two poems in the collection (almost all with a dedicatee), divided into five books, each with a dedicatory epistle.