Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

A survey of the literary output of a given year does not always correspond to the true state of affairs. It has to be based on the books and reviews published and on the literary prizes awarded, and it cannot take into account all the writing that was not published or all the forces and ideas that have sprung up and are still being developed. For example 1950, in Italy, turned out to be a much poorer year than 1949 for the purposes of a survey, though the cultural situation as a whole had in no way deteriorated.

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Among the literary prizes awarded in 1950, let us distinguish the poetry prizes from the rest.

The "Rome prize" was awarded Last Spring to Giuseppe Ungaretti, and the "San Marino" to Eugenio Montale in the Autumn.

In Italy, the purpose of the most important prizes is to acknowledge already established writers and reward them for the work and sacrifice of many years, rather than to indicate new talent. But there was more to it in the case of the prizes won by Ungaretti and Montale. These two poets dominate the scene even now and by their experience and example influence the work of the younger and very youngest poets. With Ungaretti there was yet another factor : the only volume of poetry in 1950 that contained a new message and a new development came from him. It is called "La Terra Promessa." Here Ungaretti makes a complete return to the hendecasyllable and to classical forms (the canzone of Petrarca and Leopardi; madrigals in the vein of Tasso's poetry and Claudio Monteverdi's music).

These and other less important poetry prizes also aimed at drawing attention to newer names such as Alessandro Parronchi, Giorgio Bassani, Scotellaro, Rinaldi and so on.

Few young poets of any importance published volumes of poetry in 1950. But generally speaking one can trace two main lines of development in recent Italian poetry : on the one hand towards the classical tradition as it has been re-stated by certain currents of thought mistakenly called 'hermetic'; on the other, towards poetry of social engagement, whose aim is to widen its scope and to pass, as it were, from monologue to dialogue. So far the best results have come from poets belonging to the first group which is the most vital and the most promising not only because of Ungaretti and Montale, but because of Mario Luzi, Sereni, Bertolucci and Parronchi. Their best work is marked by a real human engagement and they do at least achieve a precise discipline of style and a balance between the language of poetry and the object observed.

But with the second group, whose ideal is social engagement, we are in the field of 'good intentions,' manifestos, rhetoric and unbalance. Indeed these poets (for example the poetry Quasimodo has written during the last few years, Gatto's 'partisan' poems, or the beginner's poetry of Acrocca and Scotellaro), quarrel with the poetry of the past exclusively on account of its content. Their forms of expression remain exactly the same. In other words what they have tried to do is to stem the perennial march of poetry, which has always consisted in first achieving a new form and Language, and later a new content, (or at any rate in attaining novelty of expression and of subject simultaneously).

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Alessandro Parronchi's fine collection of poems, "Un'attesa," published by Guanda, is a mature example of his work.

The "Antologia della poesia italiana dal 1909 al 1949" is edited by Giacinto Spagnoletti and published by Guanda (in the series for which Carlo Izzo is editing an "Anthology of contemporary English poetry from Thomas Hardy to the Apocalyptics"), and includes a name which is fresh to readers : Alda Merini, a girl who works in Milan. Spagnoletti singles her out even to the point of suddenly inserting her work in what is tantamount to an official anthology of Italian poetry of the first half of the century. I cannot say that I share his enthusiasm for Alda Merini, though I admit her case is interesting. Not being in contact with normal living values, the outburst of her poetry is full of literary echoes and these are evidently bolstered up in her mind by an air of culture which one can sometimes endure to breathe.

An anthology of the very youngest poets has been promised by the publishers, "La Meridiana," and it is to include poems by Giannina Angioletti. She is a really promising young poetess and is bringing out a volume of her own with the same publishers : "I giorni del mio tempo."

"Appunti," a little collection of poems by Sandro Penna, is also being published by "La Meridiana." They are full of echoes from the classics, especially the Greeks and the Alexandrians, and they confirm Penna's subtle but unquestionable talent for poetry.

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The two main prizes awarded for prose in 1950 are linked with tragic events. The "Strega Prize," which the many frequenters of a well-known literary salon in Rome award by vote, was given by unanimous consent to Cesare Pavese last June. Two months later this writer from Turin committed suicide. It was a serious loss for literature. Of all the new prose writers, he probably had the greatest quality, and the most vitality and moral responsibility. He had just reached the forties, and for years he was known only for his excellent translations. He was responsible for the fine Italian translation of Melville's "Moby Dick," and it was he who introduced some of the best contemporary American writers to Italian readers. Then a volume of his poems appeared ("Lavorare stanca") followed by a series of short stories which were an argument in support of American neo-realism ("Paesi tuoi"), and again, "Feria d'agosto." Later, at short intervals, he published "Il compagno," "Prima che il gallo canti," "La bella estate," "La luna e il falò" Each of these books is an improvement on the last and shows the author steadily attaining more and more objectivity and clarity together with the lyrical impetus and the solidity which belongs only to the greatest narrative writers.

Again another prize, the "Premio Viareggio," the subject of so much controversy, was awarded this Summer to the memory of Francesco Jovine who was one of the leading young writers, but who died prematurely shortly before.

The other prizes testify to the present supremacy of writers coming from the South of Italy : the "Venice Prize" was awarded to Michele Prisco, the "Viareggio Prize " to Carlo Bernari (as well as to Jovine). And to begin this part of my survey I must also mention the stories Rea and Marotta have recently published.

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In Italy the end of the war, and people's immediate experience of the war, caused social problems that had been suspended or silenced for years to break out openly. Naturally the problem of Southern Italy was one of the biggest. Writers in Southern Italy only had to observe what was happening around them to stumble on a common truth. Besides they have always been more immediately and actively concerned with meditation and philosophical speculation, as well as with descriptive writing both in prose narrative and in drama. And one must remember that they live in daily contact with a population unique in its reactions, in the inventiveness of its language and for its natural way of talking which need only be written down word for word to produce a page of literature. They are people whose dialect is expressive and clear and whose intelligence and philosophy of life are often enviable. Moreover, the scene of it all, especially in the case of Naples, is a countryside bursting with colour, and a background of impetuous people, passing in a flash from tears to laughter, from tragedy to comedy, and with an outstanding gift for invention and dramatization.

Domenico Rea is a young man of twenty-nine with a bent for adventure : he emigrated to Brazil, but he returned home at once to Nocera, near Naples. He has written his third book. His first was a series of remarkably apt and spirited sketches ("Spaccanapoli"); his second ("Formicole rosse"), a sort of ballet, was less successful because more self-conscious and pretentious, whereas his greatest gift lies in his spontaneity. Now there is his third book ("Gesù fate luce") where he gives rein to his gift for the dramatic and becomes more penetrating. Italian critics have unanimously acclaimed this "story-teller" who seems to be taking his place in that magnificent Italian tradition which he knows so well. A scholar as celebrated and scrupulous as Francesco Flora has not hesitated to hold Rea up as one of the most vital of Italy's young narrative writers.

The Neapolitan scene also provided the inspiration for Giuseppe Marotta's first amusing experiments, though his interests were more superficial and more concerned with folklore than with psychological insight. By going to live first in Rome and then in Milan, Marotta broke away from the world of the South and now, in "Pietre e Nuvole," he has collected a series of imaginary interviews, little sketches and moralities without time or place and written in tones which, for him, are unusually colourless. It is as though, after the glowing colours of his landscapes and early writing, 'he had passed to "black and white" and this book proves Marotta's desire to change his field of observation. Doubtless it is a pause likely to have good results.

Carlo Bernari, who won the "Viareggio Prize" with "Speranziella," is more specifically interested in social questions. But not even he manages to equal that gift peculiar to Rea—a perfect harmony of all the most varied elements a country and its inhabitants can offer.

What is extraordinary is that Michele Prisco, author of "La Provincia addormentata" and whose "Eredi del vento" won the "Venice Prize," should have been born and be living in the same region. His writing is not so directly influenced by his native climate and fellow-countrymen. On the contrary he derives his inspiration from quite different sources. What matters most for him and the psychological interests he describes in a prose full of minutely detailed and uneasy recollections is the name of Katherine Mansfield. Yet this does not mean that he is not a solid writer on his own merits.

Eduardo De Filippo's name is well known. He is certainly the best Italian playwright in prose : the "teatro di Eduardo" always draws packed houses and endless repeat-performances. Einaudi are bringing out "Napoli Milionaria," De Filippo's comedy in Neapolitan dialect, and others are to be published shortly. He has proved himself a brilliant writer with deep insight and an ability to strike notes ranging from pathos to wild hilarity and irony. His work is both convincing and enjoyable.

Another prose prize, the "Saint Vincent," was to have been awarded last Autumn but it has been postponed for a few months. Three writers are selected for it, an Italian, a Frenchman and a Swiss, and they are chosen by an international jury. The leading Italian candidate was, and is still, Elio Vittorini who is at present working on a new novel : "Il bersagliere e la garibaldina."

In 1950 Carlo Levi published his great chronicle, "L'orologio," which is one of the most important documents of the post-war period. With "La nuova Tebaide," Nicola Lisa has given further proof of his poetic prose, full of magic and celestial beings. In "Malafumo," Antonio Baldini has collected together a series of radio talks and once again offers readers his humour and his kindly yet pungent observation. With "Ho visto il tuo cuore," Gianna Manzini has continued her fascinating work which is sustained by an impressive discipline of style that reminds one of Virginia Woolf. Bonaventura Tecchi has published his finest novel : "Valentina Yeller." Giovanni Papini has made a collection of some of his prose writings in "Le pazzie del poeta." With his short novel, "Cancroregina," Tommaso Landolfi has carried his surrealist experiments a step further.

Meanwhile other writers have been working away.

Alberto Moravia has finished a new novel, "Il conformista," which is coming out in the Spring. Corrado Alvaro is shortly publishing the first volume of his journal, "Quasi una vita." G. B. Angioletti is working on a long novel whose theme is the tragedy of everyday life of man in contemporary society. It is to be called "Giobbe." Vasco Pratolini is just finishing a novel set in Naples.

Strictly speaking all this does not belong to a chronicle of 1950, but it helps to give a fuller picture of the year.

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When I spoke of the young poets I mentioned first of all the two trends along which their work is shaping : on the one hand the polemics of social obligation or engagement, a disturbing novelty; on the other, the traditional development of literary experiences that are closer to us (Mallarmé, Ungaretti, Eliot). The same two trends can be seen in the work of the young novelists : neo-realism on the one hand, and on the other the tradition of Manzoni or Verga; 19th century France or Proust; Joyce or Kafka; Mann or Faulkner. (It is important to make clear straight away that though the French writers, and Faulkner or Hemingway, may have been responsible for suggesting a certain direction, they are not connected with the polemics and distortions occurring in Italy to-day and which frequently have political aims.)

The "Hemingway Prize," which is managed by the publishers, Mondadori, and richly endowed by the author himself, has become the official competing ground of neorealism in Italy. In 1949 awards went to such writers as Romualdo Romano, a Sicilian, for "Scirocco," and Luigi Incoronato, a Neapolitan, for "Scala a San Polito," and this increased the general perplexity regarding their efforts. For their work is often of an arbitrary and dilettante character, and conceived in such a way that it is easy for them to pass off contraband goods under the seal of novelty and of a "new outlook." This "new outlook" is spread by a particular political tendency that aims, even on the literary pages of the newspapers, at substituting the "workers" and modern grammatical errors for the "writers" and traditional discipline of style.

But this year the jury of the "Hemingway" declared that it was unable to award the prize owing to the mediocrity of the work submitted. This was a defeat for this particular brand of neo-realism (which also has supporters in Silvio Micheli and Guido Seborga). There are other writers, like Italo Calvino, who represent the neo-realistic tendency in quite a different and meritorious way.

Among the youngest writers who adhere to tradition, Guglielmo Petroni is especially outstanding through his long short story : "La casa si muove." Other names worth mentioning for 1950 are Callegari, author of "I Baroni," Lea Quaretti, Angela Padellaro and Elio Bartolini.

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Besides the state of polemics existing in literature owing to the diversity of tendencies, there is an even more lively conflict between journalism and literature. The terms of the quarrel can be summarised as follows : certain weekly newspapers that pour off the printing presses have a vast public and their contributors have a vast reputation : serious novels, on the other hand, essays and poetry are not bought. A good volume of short stories was printed some years ago with 353 copies; it may well be that it has not sold out yet. This is what causes journalists to assume they have taken the place of literature and to claim to fulfil what were once literature's tasks.

The debate flared up again this Summer with the publication of a first novel called "La Fiorentina" by the woman writer, Flora Volpini. Many successive editions of the novel were sold out. Reactions were of opposite kinds. There was high praise from the weekly newspapers, whereas the literary writers were reserved or indulged in open criticism. In the swiftness of the telling, the subjects treated, the real facts brought to light and in its taste for gossip and scandal, "La Fiorentina" is a good example of how to profit from the best that is offered by journalism and imposed by the mass production of papers. I personally am decidedly on the side of literature and there is no need for me to discuss the matter further.

In the same way Curzio Malaparte, though he has considerably greater stature and undeniable gifts, is another writer who has great success with his readers and little with literary critics. His activity knew no pause in 1950.

In Italy to-day literary criticism is playing an important role, both in the field of linguistic research and in the analysis of current affairs. I shall not pause here to make a list of the works published, however significant they may be. I shall only point out that research is even more obviously dependent on the political views of the authors than other writing. Side by side with the traditional critical method (in its various forms that include historians and stylists, philologists and linguists) there has arisen in these last years, though with results that are poor and petty in my opinion, the so-called Marxist criticism that places an economic and social presupposition at the basis of every aesthetic judgment. For example there has been an attempt to prove that the "Orlando Furioso" was begotten in relation to the agricultural situation of its period in Emilia; or again, an endeavour to liquidate certain contemporary writers like Cecchi and Ungaretti who are affirmed to be the outcome of a capitalist society. Yet it must be recognised that not a few of the critics who have now adopted this method did, in the past, show a high standard of critical intelligence.

Connected with the various political tendencies there are the literary reviews, but they are few, impoverished and unknown. In keeping with their views on the subject, the Marxists support no periodical that is specifically literary. Benedetto Croce continues to bring out "La Critica"; Francesco Flora has founded "Letterature Moderne," an international review; in Rome there is the bi-annual periodical, "Botteghe Oscure," which is finely presented and contains full short novels, poetry, stories and translations, all of them of outstanding interest. The weekly "Fiera Letteraria" provides good information. Two new reviews were started in Florence in 1950, with alternate numbers devoted to literature and to the arts. It will be remembered that during the last few years it was in Florence that the greatest number and the most important literary reviews were started : "Voce," "Lacerba," "Leonardo," "Solario," "Letteratura," "Frontespizio" and "Campo di Marie." Recently other reviews have been founded : "Paragone" which is edited by the most celebrated Italian art critic, Roberto Longhi, and by Anna Banti, an outstanding novelist who has also done excellent translations of Virginia Woolf; "Lid," a review of literature and art, edited by Alessandro Bonsanti who has already founded several important literary periodicals. Then there are the "anthology" reviews, which have no definite tendencies, but are edited by particular literary groups.

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Finally I must mention the inauguration of the Third Programme in Italian broadcasting. It consists of two hours of transmission each evening, conceived and edited with a specifically cultural interest, following the example of the time-honoured Third Programme of the B.B.C. The "Terzo Programma" is already an important organ for the diffusion of culture and will become more important with the passage of time and with the increase of its hours of broadcasting.

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So we have had a year that has not been among the richest. The work of the novelists, especially of the younger ones, has been more outstanding that that of the poets. On the whole the literary prizes were awarded cautiously.

The polemics that still continue, and the work that has been going on but which has not yet received publicity, all contribute to making 1950 fruitful in its promise of a good output for the year we have now started.