Poems of Giosuè Carducci, Translated with two introductory essays: / I. Giosuè Carducci and the Hellenic reaction in Italy. II. Carducci and the classic realism

Chapter 35: XXVI VINCENZO MONTI

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About This Book

The volume opens with two essays that analyze the poet's Hellenic revival and his classic-realist aesthetic, situating his work amid tensions between ecclesiastical influence, chivalric import, and native national feeling. It then presents translations of numerous poems—hymns, sonnets, dedicatory pieces, patriotic and religious lyrics, and descriptive sketches—covering classical subjects, Dantean and Virgilian allusions, personal reflection, and social observation. Together the critical essays and translated poems emphasize classical forms, historical memory, and a restrained realism that seeks to renew Italian literary identity.

XXVI VINCENZO MONTI

When burst thy rapid songs from out a brain

A god had struck, his ready kindred knowing,

In mighty flood like that which from the plain

Of Eridanus to the sea is going,

Then rose the immortal siren whose domain

Holds Virgil's ashes, and her breath bestowing

As from an ancient urn disturbed again,

Sweet harmonies as of lyres and reeds were flowing.

Along the circling shores its measures flinging

Came as of bees hid in Ravenna's gloom

The Tuscan verse of Dante softly ringing;

The Po sent back its trumpet note of doom.

Thou ceased. No more was heard the holy singing,

Virgil was still, and Allighieri's tomb.

Juvenilia.