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

in Sole 24 ore (August 7, 1994).

Many conjectures have been made on

Pignatelli’s identity: Luigi Amendola

suggests the Name of Giorgio Napolitano;

Luigi Reina tends toward a known poet who

likes to “experiment” in different styles.

Whoever he may be, there is the reality of

his poetic writing, forged over a flame

capable of consuming cultural and even

erudite dross in order to produce verses of

rare transparency and intensity. One

perceives in many poems of Pe cupia’ ‘o

chiarfo an expressive energy that, as Valery

used to say, involves “all the resources of

experience and intellect” to obtain results

that seem “great metaphysical

anguish...reduced to small domestic cares”

(Laforgue).

I find that the group of new Neapolitan

poets (Achille Serrao, Michele Sovente,