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

poem, 1906), Nu vìcchie bandeste

(monologue, 1912) and Lu panegìreche de

Petrarca (no date). Just before his death, he

rearranges the best of his work in the

volume Strada facenne, with the acquired

certainty of a dialect aiming at overcoming

the variance between the “coarse” speech of

the lower classes and the “clean” speech of

the cultured class.

On the same level of literary invention

moves Gaetano Murolo (1858-1903), born in

Vasto from a Neapolitan family. Although

he was forced to leave Abruzzi when still

young for reasons of work, he retains firm

ties with his native city and adopts its speech

in a considerable output of sonnets, collected

with the title Abruzzo (1886) and Ciamarèlle

[Bagpipes], 1898. The two collections, edited

by Tito Spinelli, have been reprinted

recently in a fine volume entitled Sonetti