Eugenio Montale's Imagery of Enduring Disenchantment: A Close Reading of Two Poems

Abstract

Breakthroughs fascinate me. In art their energy can be astounding. Durable discoveries,though, are rare. I read Eugenio Montale's thundering Slope (CliVO'')l as a breakthrough to a new durability. This poem bursts out of the muffled early collection, Cuttlefish Bones (1920-1927), with sudden, sure force. But how could this poem'8 findings, which seem extraordinarily negative, continue to generate energy for the poet later on? With Montale there was a lot of later on. He lived to be eighty-five and published Altri versi e poesie dispers& the year he died. Little Testament (Piccolo testamento'')3, printed when the poet was sixty, evaluates ideas put down in Slope at age twenty-nine. Montale's testament indicates that over time there has been considerable devaluation. Within his decrescendo of disenchantment light, hope, inheritance, hardness and persistence have shrunk. Even so, he wills to you what endures for him. Since the year 1996was Montale's centennial, now seems a fitting time to take a close look in these two poems at our legacy: Montale's values and the vector of his aesthetics. I would like to propose a reading based almost entirely on imagery. I regret that I cannot hear the dryness and hardness for which Montale's voice is known to his Italian readers. To my ear his Italian--all Italian--sounds liquid.