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

Salvatore Camilleri (1921), a poet of notable

interest;27 members were Salvatore Di

Pietro, of Pachino (1906-1990),28 Mario Gori,

Enzo D’Agata and the older Angelo Alberti,

Pietro Guido Cesareo, Adamo Leandri. The

two groups, moved by the same innovative

spirit, had different outlooks; Camilleri notes

that those from Palermo were influenced by

the Parnassus-De Simone tradition that,

beyond the delight in the quality of words,

constituted a more advanced stage in the

field of formal renewal with respect to the

Catania tradition, which meant mostly

Martoglio, and therefore less forward-

looking, more closely tied to prejudices.29

In the Palermo area, a considerable

impulse came from Paolo Messina, who

linked Sicilian dialect poetry to Symbolism

and Hermeticism, while others - from

Catania or Palermo ─ were assimilating