Pascoli arrives on Cape Verde – barganews.com v 3.0

Pascoli arrives on Cape Verde

Barganews.com has been on line since 1996 and one of the first things that we ever did was to publish some of the poetry written in this area by Giovanni Pascoli – CANTI DI CASTELVECCHIO

More than a century ago, in early 1906, the fifty-year-old Giovanni Pascoli succeeded his ailing mentor Giosuè Carducci as Professor of Italian Literature at the University of Bologna, a position so prestigious it might as well have come with a laurel crown. Carducci would receive the Nobel later that year, but his grandiloquent neoclassicism had already given way to his student’s humbler, plainer style; the nineteenth century had given way to the twentieth. Though Pascoli soon lapsed into the role of “national poet,” he had by then produced a major body of innovative work, one that has been read, studied, and passionately debated ever since.

1855-1912, Italian poet. Pascoli’s childhood was marked by a series of tragedies: the deaths of his parents and of five of his brothers and sisters. A radical in his student days at the Univ. of Bologna, he was subdued by imprisonment (1879) for his political activities. After completing his studies he taught classics, succeeding Giosuè Carducci as professor of literature at Bologna in 1905. His tender poetry, written in pastoral style, won him international fame; many verses were inspired by memories of his family. Also seeing his mission as the chronicling of Italy’s glory, he wrote of historical and patriotic subjects, earning D’Annunzio’s epithet “the last son of Vergil.” His works include Carmina (in Latin, 1914); the more mystical Myricae (1891-1903); and the patriotic Odi e inni (1906). Pascoli remains one of Italy’s best-loved poets. He was also an essayist of distinction

All of the articles that we have published about Pascoli over the past 18 years can be seen here

Da Aristo’s, the famous bar in Barga Vecchia which has been without a doubt the unofficial cultural centre of Barga has been shut for the past week as the Da Aristo team finally take a well earned holiday but even while they are sunning themselves 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa on Cape Verde or “Cabo Verde” as it really should now be called, they still could not leave culture alone.

Three of the original, and now very rare barganews.com t-shirts featuring the face of Giovanni Pascoli, are this week very visible on the island.

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