Giuseppe Ungaretti (1888–1970) is considered by some to be the greatest modern Italian poet. During the war he served with the 19th Infantry Regiment on the bleak Carso Plateau on the lower end of the Isonzo River sector. The fighting in the area was some of the grimmest of the war. Ungaretti began writing poetry there during interludes.
Later he was attached to the Italian contingent sent to the Western Front. He was a modernist and Dadaist, and after the war aligned with Mussolini's Fascists through the fall of the dictatorship. Following the Second World War, he and his reputation went through a slow "rehabilitation". However, his political history probably denied him the highest literary honors.
Mte. San Michele and the village of San Martino del Carso were on the front line and are the subjects of two of Ungaretti's most famous poems.
I AM A CREATURE
Like this stone of
San Michele
as cold
as hard
as thoroughly dried
as refractory
as deprived of spirit
Like this stone
is my weeping that can't
be seen
Living discounts death
 |
| The Battlefield Where Ungaretti Fought As It Looks Today |
SAN MARTINO DEL CARSO
Of these houses
nothing
bur fragments of memory
Of all who
would talk with me not
one remains
But in my heart
no one's cross is missing
My heart is
the most tormented country
of all
Thank you for the post about Giuseppe Ungaretti. There were more poets sprung from the First World War than just those from Oxbridge.
ReplyDeleteI was introduced to the poets of World War I at Hawaii Pacific University while taking a course entitled "Literature and War." Great course and the poets of WW-I are fantastic.
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