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

Marchitelli, the epic inspiration of Michele

Sacco. A more traditional approach appears

in the works of Raffaele Lepore and Osvaldo

Anzivino, of Michele Capuano and Joseph

Tusiani (much better known for his activity

as Italianist and poet in English). Published

posthumously, Francesco P. Borazio’s work

has been able to attain a complete adherence

to the “culture of poverty,” to the southern

condition rescued in a true anthropological

recovery. To the last generation belong

Pasquale Ognissanti and Francesco

Granatiero. The former’s poetry, highly

regarded by Tommaso Fiore, is characterized

by a meditation filled with sadness, by a

bitter solipsism rarely seen in other dialect

poets. Granatiero, on the other hand, is

capable of a careful memorial and

anthropological recovery, which places him

among the staunchest exponents of a dialect