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

true picture of the life and “toil” of the rural

world, despite the fact that it is the recurrent

theme of his poetic inspiration. Shepherds,

peasants, farmers, field work, sheep trails,

hovels, a harsh, barren land, animals, seasons

and chores, hunger and rage are rather

projected onto a sentimental imagination,

often too soft, sugarcoated, at times even

finely ironic, more often still preoccupied

with the “transcendental” moments of

religious meditation.

Can we accept the hypothesis of a Cirese

determined to “purge” his inspiration and

writings of the less sportive experiences of

his life (his work as a journalist ─ cf. the

periodical Battaglie di Lavoro (1912-1914); ─

of political activist; of promoter and

organizer in the schools)? Meanwhile, we

find no echo in his melos of the historical,

civil, political storms raging in the province