Italian poetry is a category of

Italian literature Italian literature is written in the Italian language, particularly within Italy. It may also refer to literature written by Italians or in other languages spoken in Italy, often languages that are closely related to modern Italian, includin ...

. Italian poetry has its origins in the thirteenth century and has heavily influenced the poetic traditions of many European languages, including that of English.

Features

* Italian prosody is accentual and syllabic, much like English. The most common metrical line is the hendecasyllable, which is very similar to English

iambic pentameter Iambic pentameter () is a type of metric line used in traditional English poetry and verse drama. The term describes the rhythm, or meter, established by the words in that line; rhythm is measured in small groups of syllables called " feet". "Iam ...

. Shorter lines like the ''settenario'' are used as well. * The earliest Italian poetry is rhymed. Rhymed forms of Italian poetry include the

sonnet A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's inventio ...

(''sonnetto''), terza rima,

ottava rima Ottava rima is a rhyming stanza form of Italian origin. Originally used for long poems on heroic themes, it later came to be popular in the writing of mock-heroic works. Its earliest known use is in the writings of Giovanni Boccaccio. The o ...

, the canzone and the

ballata The ''ballata'' (plural: ''ballate'') is an Italian poetic and musical form in use from the late 13th to the 15th century. It has the musicapenim AbbaA, with the first and last stanzas having the same texts. It is thus most similar to the Fre ...

. Beginning in the sixteenth century, unrhymed hendecasyllabic verse, known as ''verso sciolto'', became a popular alternative (compare blank verse in English). * Feminine rhymes are generally preferred over masculine rhymes. * Apocopic forms (''uom'' for ''uomo'', ''amor'' for ''amore'') and contractions (''spirto'' for ''spirito'') are common. Expanded forms of words which have become contracted in ordinary use (''cittade'' for ''città'', ''virtute'' for ''virtù'') are also frequently encountered, particularly for the sake of ending lines with feminine rhymes. * Diaeresis may be used to break up diphthongs and to make semivowels into full vowels. For instance, the trisyllabic word ''sapienza'' can be turned into the tetrasyllabic ''sapïenza''. The rules governing when diaeresis is permissible are complex, and it occurs more commonly with learnèd vocabulary than with colloquialisms. As with other European languages, Italian poets have become increasingly open to experimentation in recent centuries and free verse (''verso libero'') is written by many Italian poets.

Important Italian poets

* Giacomo da Lentini: a 13th-century poet who is believed to have invented the

. *

Guido Cavalcanti Guido Cavalcanti (between 1250 and 1259 – August 1300) was an Italian poet. He was also a friend and intellectual influence on Dante Alighieri. Historical background Cavalcanti was born in Florence at a time when the comune was beginning its ...

(c.1255 - 1300) Tuscan poet, and a key figure in the Dolce Stil Novo movement. *

Dante Alighieri Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His '' Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: ...

(1265 - 1321) wrote ''

Divina Commedia The ''Divine Comedy'' ( it, Divina Commedia ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun 1308 and completed in around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature an ...

'', one of the pinnacles of

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

literature. * Francesco Petrarca (1304 - 1374) famous for developing the Petrarchan sonnet in a collection of 366 poems called ''Canzoniere.'' * Guido Guinizelli (1230 — 1275) moved from courtly loved to mystical and spiritual philosophical spirituality *

Matteo Maria Boiardo Matteo Maria Boiardo (, ; 144019/20 December 1494) was an Italian Renaissance poet, best known for his epic poem ''Orlando innamorato''. Early life Boiardo was born in 1440,

(1441 – 1494) wrote the epic poem ''

Orlando innamorato ''Orlando Innamorato'' (; known in English as "''Orlando in Love''"; in Italian titled "''Orlando innamorato''" as the " I" is never capitalized) is an epic poem written by the Italian Renaissance author Matteo Maria Boiardo. The poem is a r ...

'' *

Ludovico Ariosto Ludovico Ariosto (; 8 September 1474 – 6 July 1533) was an Italian poet. He is best known as the author of the romance epic ''Orlando Furioso'' (1516). The poem, a continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's ''Orlando Innamorato'', describes the ...

(1474 – 1533) wrote the epic poem ''

Orlando furioso ''Orlando furioso'' (; ''The Frenzy of Orlando'', more loosely ''Raging Roland'') is an Italian epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto which has exerted a wide influence on later culture. The earliest version appeared in 1516, although the poem was ...

'' (1516). * Giovanni di Bernardo Rucellai (1474 – 1525) wrote ''Le Api'', a pioneering work in ''versi sciolti'' *

Torquato Tasso Torquato Tasso ( , also , ; 11 March 154425 April 1595) was an Italian poet of the 16th century, known for his 1591 poem ''Gerusalemme liberata'' ( Jerusalem Delivered), in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between ...

(1544 – 1595) wrote the epic '' La Gerusalemme liberata'' (1580) in which he describes imaginary combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the

First Crusade The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Islamic ...

. * Ugo Foscolo (1778 - 1827): best known for his poem "Dei Sepolcri". *

Giacomo Leopardi Count Giacomo Taldegardo Francesco di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi (, ; 29 June 1798 – 14 June 1837) was an Italian philosopher, poet, essayist, and philologist. He is considered the greatest Italian poet of the nineteenth century and one of ...

(1798 – 1837): highly valued for his ''Canti'' and ''Operette morali'', author of ''L'infinito'', one of the most famous poems of Italian literary history. *

Giosuè Carducci Giosuè Alessandro Giuseppe Carducci (; 27 July 1835 – 16 February 1907) was an Italian poet, writer, literary critic and teacher. He was very noticeably influential, and was regarded as the official national poet of modern Italy. In 1906, h ...

(1835 - 1907) won the

Nobel Prize in literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...

in 1906. *

Giovanni Pascoli Giovanni Placido Agostino Pascoli (; 31 December 1855 – 6 April 1912) was an Italian poet, classical scholar and an emblematic figure of Italian literature in the late nineteenth century. Alongside Gabriele D'Annunzio, he was one of the gre ...

(1855 - 1912)

symbolist Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...

poet, thirteen times winner of the "Certamen poeticum Hoeufftianum". * Gabriele D'Annunzio (1863 - 1938) poet and novelist of the Decadent Movement. *

Guido Gozzano Guido Gustavo Gozzano (19 December 1883 – 9 August 1916) was an Italian poet and writer. Biography He was born in Turin, the son of Fausto Gozzano, an engineer, and of Diodata Mautino, the daughter of Senator Mautino, patriot and supporter of ...

(1883-1916) poet of the Crepuscolari Movement, best known for his collection "I colloqui" (1911). *

Umberto Saba Umberto Saba (9 March 1883 – 26 August 1957) was an Italian poet and novelist, born Umberto Poli in the cosmopolitan Mediterranean port of Trieste when it was the fourth largest city of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Poli assumed the pen name ...

(1883 - 1957) *

Giuseppe Ungaretti Giuseppe Ungaretti (; 8 February 1888 – 2 June 1970) was an Italian modernist poet, journalist, essayist, critic, academic, and recipient of the inaugural 1970 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. A leading representative of the experim ...

(1888 - 1970) * Eugenio Montale (1896 – 1981) won the

in 1975. * Salvatore Quasimodo (1901 – 1968) won the

in 1959. *

Cesare Pavese Cesare Pavese ( , ; 9 September 1908 – 27 August 1950) was an Italian novelist, poet, short story writer, translator, literary critic, and essayist. He is often referred to as one of the most influential Italian writers of his time. Early lif ...

(1908 – 1950) *

Leonardo Sinisgalli Leonardo Sinisgalli (1908–1981) was an Italian poet and art critic active from the 1930s to the 1970s. Sinisgalli was born in Montemurro, Basilicata. His early education and careers led to him being called the "engineer poet". In 1925, Sinisg ...

(1908 – 1981) *

Alfonso Gatto Alfonso Gatto (17 July 1909 – 8 March 1976) was an Italian writer. Along with Giuseppe Ungaretti and Eugenio Montale, he is one of the foremost Italian poets of the 20th century and a major exponent of hermetic poetry. Biography Gatto stu ...

(1909 – 1976) * Antonia Pozzi (1912 - 1938) *

Mario Luzi Mario Luzi (20 October 1914 – 28 February 2005) was an Italian poet. Biography Born in Castello, near Sesto Fiorentino, Luzi's parents, Ciro Luzi and Margherita Papini, hailed from Samprugnano (later Semproniano). He spent his youth in Cast ...

(1914 – 2005) *

Pier Paolo Pasolini Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, filmmaker, writer and intellectual who also distinguished himself as a journalist, novelist, translator, playwright, visual artist and actor. He is considered one of ...

(1922 - 1975): better known as a filmmaker, he was also an accomplished poet.

Features

Important Italian poets

See also