Summary
Highlights
The video introduces Giuseppe Ungaretti's poems, specifically focusing on 'Il porto sepolto,' which is the title poem of his first collection. The collection was first published in 1916 and later integrated into 'L'Allegria.' It highlights that 'Il porto sepolto' was reprinted in 1923 with a preface by Benito Mussolini, indicating Ungaretti's adherence to fascism while maintaining intellectual autonomy. The definitive edition of 'L'Allegria' appeared in 1942.
The poem 'Il porto sepolto' is structured into two stanzas with free verses and no punctuation. The temporal and spatial indicators are crucial in Ungaretti's poetry, with this poem noted as 'Mariano, June 29, 1916,' placing it on the war front in Mariano del Friuli, Gorizia. Ungaretti's direct participation in the war heavily influences his works like 'Il porto sepolto' and 'L'Allegria'. The distinctive use of short verses, white spaces, and enjambment, as well as an oxymoron ('inesauribile segreto'), are discussed as key stylistic choices.
The title 'Il porto sepolto' is deeply linked to Ungaretti's life experience. He recounts learning about a submerged port, pre-Ptolemaic, in Alexandria from French engineers, which proved Alexandria was a port city even before Alexander the Great. This buried port serves as both a physical and metaphorical refuge, a mysterious and inaccessible place that represents the secret and indecipherable within us, also referencing his childhood in Alexandria, Egypt. It symbolizes a symbolic, secret space that only the poet can access.
The poet's immersion into the 'buried port' and his reappearance 'with his songs' is compared to mythological figures like Orpheus descending into the underworld to retrieve Eurydice, or Aeneas. Ungaretti emerges with his poems, which he then 'disperde' (disperses), meaning he shares them with others rather than keeping them private. This act of sharing, however, also implies that something of the original poetic experience is inevitably lost. This process is likened to the Sibyl of Cumae scattering her golden leaves inscribed with prophecies.
Ungaretti wrote these songs on various makeshift surfaces—postcards, newspaper margins, and even fragments of letters—while on the front lines, not intending them for a public audience. The act of writing poetry, for Ungaretti, is about extracting words from the abyss, a complex operation of diving into and re-emerging from life's depths. The 'nothing' in Ungaretti becomes an 'infinite.' The poem delves into the mystery of life, which has no beginning or end and coincides with the infinite. Formally, the poem showcases a metrical revolution with no punctuation, reflective white spaces, and very short verses, sometimes just single words.