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

Battaglia) through La Trazzera. Buttitta first

b o o k , Sintimentali [Sentimental], had

appeared in 1925: a collection still showing

echoes of traditional poetry (Pascoli, on the

one hand, Zola and Verga on the other), but

in which one can find the premises for

Buttitta’s more mature poetry. His style is

already outlined, based on spoken Sicilian,

with a dry musicality.

After the experience of W.W. II and the

partisan struggle, in the decade 1945-55, he

makes the acquaintance in Milan, introduced

by the painter Renato Guttuso, a fellow

townsman, with Vittorini and Quasimodo.

His poetry has long since abandoned

traditional dross, the adoption of free verse

is definitive, and he moves between

sentiment and engagement.

Buttitta’s entire poetic output develops

substantially between these two poles, in a