Dialect Poetry of Southern Italy (Italian Poetry in Translation Book 2)

socialist, followed the revolutionary line of

George Sorel. The poet’s great-grandchild,

Vito Mercadante Jr., looking through some

of his great-uncle archive papers, found the

following comment:

Against the evil arts of politicians.

Against the diabolical work of priests.

Against the indifference, or worst, of

irresponsible comrades. Against weariness

and defeats. Against public opinion and the

press. Against regulations, customs and

laws.^19

The poet was in favor of the valorization

of rural civilization (as it was emerging from

the ethnic-anthropological studies of Vigo,

Salomone-Marino, Pitrè), of popular

literature and a concrete poetry, in the wake

of verismo, some of whose canons were

nevertheless considered misleading: the cold

positivistic -scientific outlook and the