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

logic of that type of choice there was also the

explicit refusal of an artificial, pedantic,

academic dialect, separated from the

authentic roots of Sicilian culture and deaf to

the genuine voice of the people. And thus

there was a rejection of the idea of a kind of

poetry following the worn-out linguistic

models of the imitators of Giovanni Meli.(26)

In 1946 the poets of Palermo gathered

around the Gruppo Alessio di Giovanni,

which functioned until 1954; Ammannato,

Conti, Tamburello, Orsini, Messina were

joined by Gianni Varvaro (1917-1973) and,

occasionally, by Buttitta and the poets from

Catania Aldo Grienti (1926-1986) and

Carmelo Molino (1908-1984). Grienti and

Molino, in turn, had started the poetry sheet

Torcia a ventu, around which gathered the

group from Catania, soon to be known as

Trinacrismo, whose leading spirit was