Delio Tessa (18 November 1886 – 21 September 1939) was an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

poet from

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

Biography

He studied at the

High school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

Beccaria Beccaria is an Italian surname and place name. People * Alessandro Beccaria (born 1988), Italian footballer * Angelo Beccaria (1820–1897), was an Italian landscape painter * Battista Beccario (15th-century), Genoese cartographer * Cesare Beccar ...

and graduated as a

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

in the

University A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

Pavia Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the capit ...

. After University studies he did not like the job of conciliator judge. He dedicated the free times deepening

Milanese dialect Milanese (endonym in traditional orthography , ') is the central variety of the Western dialect of the Lombard language spoken in Milan, the rest of its metropolitan city, and the northernmost part of the province of Pavia. Milanese, due to t ...

literature as:

Carlo Porta Carlo Porta (June 15, 1775 – January 5, 1821) was an Italian poet, the most famous writer in Milanese (the prestige dialect of the Lombard language). Biography Porta was born in Milan to Giuseppe Porta and Violante Gottieri, a merchant famil ...

, and started to write some comedies and film scripts like: ''Vecchia Europa'', postume published on 1986. An

antifascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...

, he remained aloof from official culture, devoting himself to local sphere. Except the collection of poems ''L'è el dì di mort, alegher!'', all his works have been published posthumously. Tessa died in 1939 of

abscess An abscess is a collection of pus that has built up within the tissue of the body. Signs and symptoms of abscesses include redness, pain, warmth, and swelling. The swelling may feel fluid-filled when pressed. The area of redness often extends b ...

, and was buried, according to his will, in a common field of Musocco. However, in 1950 Milan City Council transferred his body to the city's

Monumental Cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

, where other eminent Milanese people lie.

Poetics and Thought

He was the most renowned writer in the

after

. The originality of his poetry stands mostly in his expressionism and his satirical (both sad and ironical) way to depict Death. Delio Tessa grave Milan 2015

The topics of his poetics are the drama of the World War I and of the daily life of neglects, revised in personal way and caring very much about the sonority of the lines. Often the topic of the dead women is present, with a pessimism and distrust of personal and cultural origin (

Scapigliatura ''Scapigliatura'' () is the name of an artistic movement that developed in Italy after the Risorgimento period (1815–71). The movement included poets, writers, musicians, painters and sculptors. The term Scapigliatura is the Italian equivalent of ...

decadentism The Decadent movement (Fr. ''décadence'', “decay”) was a late-19th-century artistic and literary movement, centered in Western Europe, that followed an aesthetic ideology of excess and artificiality. The Decadent movement first flourished ...

, Russian novel,

expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

). The restlessness is reflected in the tension of the language, used like strongly fragmented popular language.

Works and Styles

His masterpiece is ''L'è el dì di Mort, alegher!'' ("It's the day of the Dead, be happy!", a collection of his lyrics, 1932). Stylistically, he uses massively "enjambements" and parentheticals; he mixes

(a dialect of

Western Lombard language Western Lombard is a group of dialects of Lombard, a Romance language spoken in Italy. It is widespread in the Lombard provinces of Milan, Monza, Varese, Como, Lecco, Sondrio, a small part of Cremona (except Crema and its neighbours), Lodi ...

spoken in the city and in the Hinterland) with Italian and foreign languages such as French and English, making them rhyme, too. The themes of the First World War faced up by Tessa appeared in the settenary poem: Caporetto 1917; dedicated to the

Battle of Caporetto The Battle of Caporetto (also known as the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo, the Battle of Kobarid or the Battle of Karfreit) was a battle on the Italian front of World War I. The battle was fought between the Kingdom of Italy and the Central ...

References

1886 births 1939 deaths Writers from Milan Italian male poets Western Lombard language 20th-century Italian poets 20th-century Italian male writers {{italy-poet-stub