Giuseppe Ungaretti (; 8 February 1888 – 2 June 1970) was an Italian
modernist
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
poet, journalist, essayist, critic, academic, and recipient of the inaugural 1970
Neustadt International Prize for Literature
The Neustadt International Prize for Literature is a biennial award for literature sponsored by the University of Oklahoma and its international literary publication, ''World Literature Today''. It is considered one of the more prestigious inte ...
. A leading representative of the
experimental
An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when a ...
trend known as ''
Ermetismo'' ("
Hermeticism
Hermeticism, or Hermetism, is a philosophical system that is primarily based on the purported teachings of Hermes Trismegistus (a legendary Hellenistic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth). These teachings are containe ...
"), he was one of the most prominent contributors to 20th century
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, including ...
. Influenced by
symbolism
Symbolism or symbolist may refer to:
Arts
* Symbolism (arts), a 19th-century movement rejecting Realism
** Symbolist movement in Romania, symbolist literature and visual arts in Romania during the late 19th and early 20th centuries
** Russian sym ...
, he was briefly aligned with
futurism. Like many futurists, he took an
irredentist
Irredentism is usually understood as a desire that one state annexes a territory of a neighboring state. This desire is motivated by ethnic reasons (because the population of the territory is ethnically similar to the population of the parent st ...
position during World War I. Ungaretti debuted as a poet while fighting in the
trenches
A trench is a type of excavation or in the ground that is generally deeper than it is wide (as opposed to a wider gully, or ditch), and narrow compared with its length (as opposed to a simple hole or pit).
In geology, trenches result from erosi ...
, publishing one of his best-known pieces, ''
L'allegria'' ("The Joy").
During the
interwar period, Ungaretti worked as a journalist with
Benito Mussolini (whom he met during his
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
accession), as well as a foreign-based correspondent for ''
Il Popolo d'Italia
''Il Popolo d'Italia'' ("The People of Italy") was an Italian newspaper published from 15 November 1914 until 24 July 1943. It was founded by Benito Mussolini as a pro-war newspaper during World War I, and it later became the main newspaper of ...
'' and ''
Gazzetta del Popolo
''Gazzetta del Popolo'' was an Italian daily newspaper founded in Turin, in northern Italy, on 16 June 1848. It ceased publication on 31 December 1983 after 135 years of operation. Italian novelist Alberto Moravia
Alberto Moravia ( , ; born A ...
''. While briefly associated with the
Dadaists
Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Pari ...
, he developed ''
Hermeticism
Hermeticism, or Hermetism, is a philosophical system that is primarily based on the purported teachings of Hermes Trismegistus (a legendary Hellenistic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth). These teachings are containe ...
'' as a personal take on poetry. After spending several years in Brazil, he returned home during World War II, and was assigned a teaching post at the
University of Rome, where he spent the final decades of his life and career.
Biography
Early life
Ungaretti was born in
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...
,
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
into a family from the Tuscan city of
Lucca
Lucca ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its province has a population of 383,957.
Lucca is known as one ...
.
[Picchione & Smith, p. 204] Ungaretti's father worked on digging the
Suez Canal, where he suffered a fatal accident in 1890.
His widowed mother, who ran a bakery on the edge of the
Sahara, educated her child on the basis of Roman Catholic tenets.
Giuseppe Ungaretti's formal education began in French, at Alexandria's Swiss School.
It was there that he became acquainted with
Parnassianism and
Symbolist poetry, in particular with
Gabriele d'Annunzio,
Charles Baudelaire
Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticism inherited ...
,
Jules Laforgue
Jules Laforgue (; 16 August 1860 – 20 August 1887) was a Franco-Uruguayan poet, often referred to as a Symbolist poet. Critics and commentators have also pointed to Impressionism as a direct influence and his poetry has been called "part-symbol ...
,
Stéphane Mallarmé and
Arthur Rimbaud
Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (, ; 20 October 1854 – 10 November 1891) was a French poet known for his transgressive and surreal themes and for his influence on modern literature and arts, prefiguring surrealism. Born in Charleville, he start ...
.
He also became familiar with works of the Classicists
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 ...
and
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 ...
, as well as with the writings of maverick author
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 great ...
.
This period marked his debut as a journalist and literary critic, with pieces published ''Risorgete'', a journal edited by
anarchist writer
Enrico Pea.
At the time, he was in correspondence with
Giuseppe Prezzolini Giuseppe Prezzolini (27 January 1882 – 16 July 1982) was an Italian literary critic, journalist, editor and writer. He later became an American citizen.
Biography
Prezzolini was born in Perugia in January 1882, to Tuscan parents from Siena, Luig ...
, editor of the influential magazine ''
La Voce''.
A regular visitor of Pea's ''Baracca Rossa'' ("Red House"), Ungaretti was himself a sympathizer of anarchist-socialist circles. He abandoned Christianity and became an atheist. It was not until 1928 that he returned to the Catholic faith.
In 1912, the 24-year-old Giuseppe Ungaretti moved to Paris, France. On his way there, he stopped in Rome,
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
and
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 ...
, meeting face to face with Prezzolini.
Ungaretti attended lectures at the
Collège de France
The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment ('' grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris n ...
and the
University of Paris
, image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Coat of Arms
, latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis
, motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin)
, mottoeng = Here and a ...
, and had among his teachers philosopher
Henri Bergson, whom he reportedly admired.
The young writer also met and befriended French literary figure
Guillaume Apollinaire
Guillaume Apollinaire) of the Wąż coat of arms. (; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic of Polish descent.
Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of t ...
, a promoter of
Cubism and a forerunner of
Surrealism. Apollinaire's work came to be a noted influence on his own.
He was also in contact with the Italian expatriates, including leading representatives of
Futurism such as
Carlo Carrà,
Umberto Boccioni
Umberto Boccioni (, ; 19 October 1882 – 17 August 1916) was an influential Italian painter and sculptor. He helped shape the revolutionary aesthetic of the Futurism movement as one of its principal figures. Despite his short life, his approach ...
,
Aldo Palazzeschi
Aldo Palazzeschi (; 2 February 1885 – 17 August 1974) was the pen name of Aldo Giurlani, an Italian novelist, poet, journalist and essayist.
Biography
He was born in Florence to a well-off, bourgeois family. Following his father's direction, ...
,
Giovanni Papini
Giovanni Papini (9 January 18818 July 1956) was an Italian journalist, essayist, novelist, short story writer, poet, literary critic, and philosopher. A controversial literary figure of the early and mid-twentieth century, he was the earliest and ...
and
Ardengo Soffici
Ardengo Soffici (7 April 1879 – 19 August 1964) was an Italian writer, painter, poet, sculptor and intellectual.
Early life
Soffici was born in Rignano sull'Arno, near Florence. In 1893 his family moved to the latter city, where he stud ...
, as well as with the independent visual artist
Amedeo Modigliani.
World War I and debut
Upon the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Ungaretti, like his Futurist friends, supported an
irredentist
Irredentism is usually understood as a desire that one state annexes a territory of a neighboring state. This desire is motivated by ethnic reasons (because the population of the territory is ethnically similar to the population of the parent st ...
position, and called for his country's intervention on the side of the
Entente Powers
The Triple Entente (from French '' entente'' meaning "friendship, understanding, agreement") describes the informal understanding between the Russian Empire, the French Third Republic, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland as well a ...
.
[Picchione & Smith, p. 205] Enrolled in the infantry a year later, he saw action on the
Northern Italian theater, serving in the
trenches
A trench is a type of excavation or in the ground that is generally deeper than it is wide (as opposed to a wider gully, or ditch), and narrow compared with its length (as opposed to a simple hole or pit).
In geology, trenches result from erosi ...
.
[Payne; Picchione & Smith, p. 205] In contrast to his early enthusiasm, he became appalled by the realities of war.
The conflict also made Ungaretti discover his talent as a poet, and, in 1917, he published the volume of
free verse
Free verse is an open form of poetry, which in its modern form arose through the French '' vers libre'' form. It does not use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any musical pattern. It thus tends to follow the rhythm of natural speech.
Defi ...
''Il porto sepolto'' ("The Buried Port"), largely written on the
Kras
''KRAS'' ( Kirsten rat sarcoma virus) is a gene that provides instructions for making a protein called K-Ras, a part of the RAS/MAPK pathway. The protein relays signals from outside the cell to the cell's nucleus. These signals instruct the cel ...
front. Although depicting the hardships of war life, his celebrated ''L'Allegria'' was not unenthusiastic about its purpose (even if in the poem "Fratelli", and in others, he describes the absurdity of the war and the brotherhood between all the men); this made Ungaretti's stance contrast with that of
Lost Generation
The Lost Generation was the social generational cohort in the Western world that was in early adulthood during World War I. "Lost" in this context refers to the "disoriented, wandering, directionless" spirit of many of the war's survivors in th ...
writers, who questioned their countries' intents, and similar to that of Italian intellectuals such as Soffici,
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti (; 22 December 1876 – 2 December 1944) was an Italian poet, editor, art theorist, and founder of the Futurist movement. He was associated with the utopian and Symbolist artistic and literary community Abbaye d ...
,
Piero Jahier and
Curzio Malaparte
Curzio Malaparte (; 9 June 1898 – 19 July 1957), born Kurt Erich Suckert, was an Italian writer, filmmaker, war correspondent and diplomat. Malaparte is best known outside Italy due to his works ''Kaputt'' (1944) and ''La pelle'' (1949). The f ...
.
By the time the
1918 armistice was signed, Ungaretti was again in Paris,
working as a correspondent for
Benito Mussolini's paper ''
Il Popolo d'Italia
''Il Popolo d'Italia'' ("The People of Italy") was an Italian newspaper published from 15 November 1914 until 24 July 1943. It was founded by Benito Mussolini as a pro-war newspaper during World War I, and it later became the main newspaper of ...
''. He published a volume of French-language poetry, titled ''La guerre'' ("The War", 1919).
[Payne] In 1920, Giuseppe Ungaretti married the Frenchwoman Jeanne Dupoix, with whom he had a daughter, Ninon (born 1925), and a son, Antonietto (born 1930).
During that period in Paris, Ungaretti came to affiliate with the
anti-establishment
An anti-establishment view or belief is one which stands in opposition to the conventional social, political, and economic principles of a society. The term was first used in the modern sense in 1958, by the British magazine ''New Statesman'' ...
and anti-art current known as
Dada
Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Pari ...
ism. He was present in the Paris-based Dadaist circle led by
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...
n poet
Tristan Tzara
Tristan Tzara (; ; born Samuel or Samy Rosenstock, also known as S. Samyro; – 25 December 1963) was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, comp ...
, being, alongside
Alberto Savinio,
Julius Evola
Giulio Cesare Andrea "Julius" Evola (; 19 May 1898 – 11 June 1974) was an Italian philosopher, poet, painter, esotericist, and radical-right ideologue. Evola regarded his values as aristocratic, masculine, traditionalist, heroic, and defiant ...
,
Gino Cantarelli
Gino Cantarelli (1899 – 1950) was an Italian Dadaist poet and painter of the early 20th century. He was associated first with Futurism, then with Dada. He often wrote his poems in French.
Born in Mantua, from 1917 to 1920 Cantarelli publishe ...
,
Aldo Fiozzi and
Enrico Prampolini, one of the figures who established a transition from Italian Futurism to Dada. In May 1921, he was present at the Dadaist mock trial of
reactionary author
Maurice Barrès, during which the Dadaist movement began to separate itself into two competing parts, headed respectively by Tzara and
André Breton. He was also affiliated with the literary circle formed around the journal ''La Ronda''.
''Hermeticism'' and fascism
The year after his marriage, Ungaretti returned to Italy, settling in Rome as a
Foreign Ministry In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...
employee.
By then, Mussolini had organized the
March on Rome
The March on Rome ( it, Marcia su Roma) was an organized mass demonstration and a coup d'état in October 1922 which resulted in Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party (PNF) ascending to power in the Kingdom of Italy. In late October 1922, ...
, which confirmed his seizure of power. Ungaretti joined in the
National Fascist Party
The National Fascist Party ( it, Partito Nazionale Fascista, PNF) was a political party in Italy, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of Italian Fascism and as a reorganization of the previous Italian Fasces of Combat. Th ...
, signing the pro-fascist ''Manifesto of the Italian Writers'' in 1925. In his essays of 1926–1929, republished in 1996, he repeatedly called on the ''
Duce
( , ) is an Italian title, derived from the Latin word 'leader', and a cognate of ''duke''. National Fascist Party leader Benito Mussolini was identified by Fascists as ('The Leader') of the movement since the birth of the in 1919. In 192 ...
'' to direct cultural development in Italy and reorganize the
Italian Academy on fascist lines.
[ Giorgio De Rienzo]
"Ungaretti: 'Serve un Duce alla guida della cultura' "
in '' Corriere della Sera'', 12 December 1996; but in this article Ossola explains also that Ungaretti is not a "constituent" intellectual of Fascism; and that he was not admitted, for many political reasons, in the Fascist Academy He argued: "The first task of the Academy will be to reestablish a certain connection between men of letters, between writers, teachers, publicists. This people hungers for poetry. If it had not been for the miracle of
Blackshirts
The Voluntary Militia for National Security ( it, Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale, MVSN), commonly called the Blackshirts ( it, Camicie Nere, CCNN, singular: ) or (singular: ), was originally the paramilitary wing of the Nation ...
, we would never have leaped this far."
In his private letters to a French critic, Ungaretti also claimed that fascist rule did not imply
censorship
Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...
.
Mussolini, who did not give a favorable answer to Ungaretti's appeal,
prefaced the 1923 edition of ''Il porto sepolto'', thus politicizing its message.
In 1925, Ungaretti experienced a religious crisis, which, three years later, made him return to the Roman Catholic Church.
Meanwhile, he contributed to a number of journals and published a series of poetry volumes, before becoming a foreign correspondent for ''
Gazzetta del Popolo
''Gazzetta del Popolo'' was an Italian daily newspaper founded in Turin, in northern Italy, on 16 June 1848. It ceased publication on 31 December 1983 after 135 years of operation. Italian novelist Alberto Moravia
Alberto Moravia ( , ; born A ...
'' in 1931, and traveling not only to Egypt,
Corsica and the Netherlands, but also to various regions of Italy.
It was during this period that Ungaretti introduced ''
Ermetismo'', baptized with the
Italian-language
Italian (''italiano'' or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. Together with Sardinian, Italian is the least divergent language from Latin. Spoken by about ...
word for "''
Hermeticism
Hermeticism, or Hermetism, is a philosophical system that is primarily based on the purported teachings of Hermes Trismegistus (a legendary Hellenistic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth). These teachings are containe ...
''".
["Hermeticism", entry in ''Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature'', Merriam-Webster, Springfield, 1995, p. 540. ] The new trend, inspired by both Symbolism and Futurism, had its origins in both ''Il porto sepolto'', where Ungaretti had eliminated structure,
syntax and punctuation, and the earlier contributions of
Arturo Onofri Arturo is a Spanish and Italian variant of the name Arthur.
People
*Arturo Álvarez (footballer, born 1985), American-born Salvadoran footballer
* Arturo Álvarez (footballer, born 1959), Mexican footballer
*Arthuro Henrique Bernhardt (b. 1982), Br ...
.
The style was indebted to the influence of Symbolists from
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...
to Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Mallarmé and
Paul Valéry
Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry (; 30 October 1871 – 20 July 1945) was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher. In addition to his poetry and fiction (drama and dialogues), his interests included aphorisms on art, history, letters, mus ...
.
Alongside Ungaretti, its main representatives were
Eugenio Montale
Eugenio Montale (; 12 October 1896 – 12 September 1981) was an Italian poet, prose writer, editor and translator, and recipient of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Life and works
Early years
Montale was born in Genoa. His family were che ...
and
Salvatore Quasimodo
Salvatore Quasimodo (; August 20, 1901 – June 14, 1968) was an Italian poet and translator. In 1959, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his lyrical poetry, which with classical fire expresses the tragic experience of life in our own time ...
.
Despite the critical acclaim he enjoyed, the poet confronted himself with financial difficulties.
In 1936, he moved to the Brazilian city of
São Paulo
São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...
, and became a Professor of Italian at
São Paulo University.
It was there that, in 1939, his son Antonietto died as a result of a badly performed
appendectomy.
World War II and after
In 1942, three years after the start of World War II, Ungaretti returned to
Axis
An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to:
Mathematics
* Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis
* Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinat ...
-allied Italy, where he was received with honors by the officials.
The same year, he was made a Professor of Modern Literature at the
University of Rome.
He continued to write poetry, and published a series of essays.
By then, ''
Hermeticism
Hermeticism, or Hermetism, is a philosophical system that is primarily based on the purported teachings of Hermes Trismegistus (a legendary Hellenistic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth). These teachings are containe ...
'' had come to an end, and Ungaretti, like Montale and Quasimodo, had adopted a more formal style in his poetry.
At Rome, Ungaretti mentored the poet
Elio Filippo Accrocca, whose work was greatly influenced by Ungaretti's.
At the close of the war, following Mussolini's downfall, Ungaretti was expelled from the faculty owing to his fascist connections, but reinstated when his colleagues voted in favor of his return.
Affected by his wife's 1958 death, Giuseppe Ungaretti sought comfort in traveling throughout Italy and abroad.
He visited Japan, the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
, Israel and the United States.
![Giuseppe Ungaretti (basco)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Giuseppe_Ungaretti_%28basco%29.jpg)
In 1964, he gave a series of lectures at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
in New York City, and, in 1970, was invited by the
University of Oklahoma
, mottoeng = "For the benefit of the Citizen and the State"
, type = Public research university
, established =
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $2.7billion (2021)
, pr ...
to receive its
Books Abroad Prize.
During this last trip, Ungaretti fell ill with
bronchopneumonia
Bronchopneumonia is a subtype of pneumonia. It is the acute inflammation of the bronchi, accompanied by inflamed patches in the nearby lobules of the lungs. citing: Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fifth Edition, Copyright 2014
It is ofte ...
, and, although he received treatment in New York City, died while under medical supervision in Milan.
He was buried in
Campo Verano
The Campo Verano (Italian: ''Cimitero del Verano'') is a cemetery in Rome, Italy, founded in the early 19th century. The monumental cemetery is currently divided into sections: the Jewish cemetery, the Catholic cemetery, and the monument to the ...
(Rome).
Poetry
''L'Allegria'', previously called ''L'Allegria di Naufragi'', is a decisive moment of the recent history of Italian literature: Ungaretti revises with novel ideas the poetic style of the ''
poètes maudits'' (especially the broken verses without punctation marks of
Guillaume Apollinaire
Guillaume Apollinaire) of the Wąż coat of arms. (; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic of Polish descent.
Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of t ...
's ''Calligrammes'' and the equality between verse and a single word), connecting it with his experience of death and pain as a soldier at war. The hope of brotherhood between all the people is expressed strongly, together with the desire of searching for a renovated "harmony" with the universe, impressive in the famous verses of ''Mattina'':
A famous poem regarding the First World War is
''Soldati'' (soldiers), which emblematically and emotionally describes their feelings of uncertainty and fear:
In the successive works he studied the importance of the poetic word (marked by ''
Hermeticism
Hermeticism, or Hermetism, is a philosophical system that is primarily based on the purported teachings of Hermes Trismegistus (a legendary Hellenistic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth). These teachings are containe ...
'' and
symbolism
Symbolism or symbolist may refer to:
Arts
* Symbolism (arts), a 19th-century movement rejecting Realism
** Symbolist movement in Romania, symbolist literature and visual arts in Romania during the late 19th and early 20th centuries
** Russian sym ...
), as the only way to save the humanity from the universal horror, and was searching for a new way to recuperate the roots of the Italian classical poetry.
[Elio Gioanola, ''ibidem'', p. 188] His last verses are on the poem ''l'Impietrito e il Velluto'', about the memory of the ''bright universe eyed'' Dunja, an old woman that was house guest of his mother in the time of his childhood. Here is the end:
Legacy
Although Ungaretti parted company with ''
Ermetismo ("
Hermeticism
Hermeticism, or Hermetism, is a philosophical system that is primarily based on the purported teachings of Hermes Trismegistus (a legendary Hellenistic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth). These teachings are containe ...
")'', his early experiments were continued for a while by poets such as
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 stud ...
,
Mario Luzi and
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, Sinis ...
.
His collected works were published as ''Vita di un uomo'' ("The Life of a Man") at the time of his death.
Two of Ungaretti's poems ("Soldiers – War – Another War" and "Vanity") were made into song by American composer
Harry Partch
Harry Partch (June 24, 1901 – September 3, 1974) was an American composer, music theorist, and creator of unique musical instruments. He composed using scales of unequal intervals in just intonation, and was one of the first 20th-century com ...
(''Eleven Intrusions'', 1949–50); and eleven poems were set by the French-Romanian composer
Horațiu Rădulescu
Horațiu Rădulescu (; 7 January 1942 – 25 September 2008) was a Romanian-French composer, best known for the spectral technique of composition.
Life
Rădulescu was born in Bucharest, where he studied the violin privately with Nina Alexandres ...
in his cycle ''End of Kronos'' (1999). Fragments of his poetry are set by composer Michael Mantler in Cerco un Paese Innocente, a work recorded in 1994.
Austrian-Hungarian composer
Iván Eröd used his poems in four of his works: "Tutto ho perduto" Op. 12 (1965), "Canti di Ungaretti" Op. 55 (1988), "Vox lucis" Op. 56 (1988–89) and in his last work "Canti di un Ottantenne" Op. 95 (2019), completed only several days before his death in June 2019.
Published volumes
*''Il porto sepolto'' ("The Buried Port", 1916 and 1923)
*''La guerra'' ("The War", 1919 and 1947)
*''Allegria di naufragi'' ("The Joy of Shipwrecks", 1919)
*''L'allegria'' ("The Joy", 1931)
*''Sentimento del tempo'' ("The Feeling of Time", 1933)
*''Traduzioni'' ("Translations", 1936)
*''Poesie disperse'' ("Scattered Poems", 1945)
*''Il dolore'' ("The Pain", 1947)
*''La terra promessa'' ("The Promised Land", 1950)
*''Un grido e paesaggi'' ("A Shout and Landscapes", 1952)
*''Il taccuino del vecchio'' ("The Old Man's Notebook", 1960)
*''Vita di un uomo'' ("The Life of a Man", 1969)
Notes
References
*Alessandro Baruffi, in ''Giuseppe Ungaretti, the Master of Hermeticism, Translated in English'',
LiteraryJoint Press, Philadelphia, PA, 2018.
*Roberta L. Payne, "Ungaretti, Giuseppe", in ''A Selection of Modern Italian Poetry in Translation'',
McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal & Kingston, p. 198.
*John Picchione, Lawrence R. Smith, ''Twentieth-century Italian Poetry. An Anthology'',
University of Toronto Press
The University of Toronto Press is a Canadian university press founded in 1901. Although it was founded in 1901, the press did not actually publish any books until 1911.
The press originally printed only examination books and the university cale ...
, Toronto, 1993.
*
Hans Richter, ''Dada. Art and Anti-art'',
Thames & Hudson, London & New York, 2004.
*George Talbot
"Alberto Moravia and Italian Fascism: Censorship, Racism and ''Le ambizioni sbagliate''" in ''Modern Italy'', Vol. 11, No. 2, June 2006 (hosted by the
University of Hull
, mottoeng = Bearing the Torch f learning, established = 1927 – University College Hull1954 – university status
, type = Public
, endowment = £18.8 million (2016)
, budget = £190 million ...
)
Finding aid to Luciano Rebay collection of Giuseppe Ungaretti at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ungaretti, Giuseppe
1888 births
1970 deaths
Burials at Campo Verano
Converts to Roman Catholicism from atheism or agnosticism
Deaths from bronchopneumonia
Deaths from pneumonia in Lombardy
Italian essayists
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Italian male poets
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