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

face of the new conditioning caused by the

nuclear threat, raises a song of hope, so that

men will not give up: the day of liberation

will come; in such a wait, the poet wants to

wear “a new skin” and instill new life to his

song, dispelling any disheartenment.

In La paglia bruciata (1968), in addition to

recounting the story of the Cervi brothers,

exemplum of his social and political

commitment, the poet retraces the stages of

his existence: he looks into himself and

observes human passions. Here and there, he

adopts the expressive patterns of narrative

poetry, a bit like Pavese’s Lavorare stanca,

but in his own way. And he also goes from

certain satirical tones of the previous works

to the comical and grotesque, while his

poetry becomes more elaborate and indulges

in a few catchy plays on words; his poetry

becomes more cultured and less spoken,