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

“dogma” of the impersonality of the writer.

In the language of his land he sang the

epic deeds of garibaldi in Lu Sissanta (1910),

as an expression of the deliverance of the

Sicilian people; the poem runs from the

landing at Marsala until Palermo, as if to

signify the author’s indifference to

subsequent events, which saw the betrayal

of that revolution. The work appeared in the

same year as Mercadante’s L’omu e la terra

[Man and Land], inspired by the Messina

earthquake of 1908 and the masterpiece, Focu

di Muncibeddu [Mongibello’s Fire]: a

collection characterized by fluid, limpid

writing and a wide range of themes: from

the absorbed contemplation of nature to the

lyric representation of moments of rural life,

at times festive at times tragic; from delicate

sentimental broadsides to magical