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

the soul,” with a language totally free from

bookish schemes; Tonino Merletti (Pineto),

who in Allegrine (1986), even where he

seems not to wander very far from local

themes, is able to combine the freshness of

spoken speech with the subtlety of the well-

wrought text; Vittorio Monaco (Pettorano

sul Gizio), who from Castagne pazze [Crazy

Chestnuts], 1997 to La vie e ju viente [The

Road and the Wind], 1988 and Specie de

vierne, [Kind of Winter], 1989, with a

language dense with evocative vibrations, is

able to express man’s disorientation before

the erosion of our ancient values; Pietro

Civitareale (Vittorito), who in a small

collection, Come nu suonne [Like a Dream],

1984, displays a prodigious new voice, both

strong and graceful, if devoid of “rhymes

and even assonances”; Michele Ursini

(Guastamerolli), who, from Gente e cose de