Giovanni Pascoli "addresses the deepest part of himself" and in doing so
addresses the nature of language. Here is a moral harmony, a manifesto for
a poetry of common memory and dream. Pascoli, quite simply, names truth;
while of the nineteenth century, he is utterly contemporary. There is much
of timeless poetics here, something of Blake's visionary innocence, something
of Whitman's self-contradictions, yet Pascoli has his own tragic sadness to
reconcile: He is unique.
In John Martone he has met his perfect translator. Martone matches
Pascoli's erudition and intelligent ordering. He brings us a clarity from the
limpid and sometimes conflicting apparent simplicity of Pascoli's work.
O Little One is vital to everyone who loves poetry.
— Gerry Loose
addresses the nature of language. Here is a moral harmony, a manifesto for
a poetry of common memory and dream. Pascoli, quite simply, names truth;
while of the nineteenth century, he is utterly contemporary. There is much
of timeless poetics here, something of Blake's visionary innocence, something
of Whitman's self-contradictions, yet Pascoli has his own tragic sadness to
reconcile: He is unique.
In John Martone he has met his perfect translator. Martone matches
Pascoli's erudition and intelligent ordering. He brings us a clarity from the
limpid and sometimes conflicting apparent simplicity of Pascoli's work.
O Little One is vital to everyone who loves poetry.
— Gerry Loose
Laertes
2019
