On Poetry: A Quotation from Laforgue's "Hamlet"

Abstract

By FRANCO BUFFONI Whenever I have to define what poetry means to me, I am often reminded of a quotation from Jules Laforgue's Hamlet. Hamlet turns to Horatio, his incomparable friend, and asks that Horatio precede him and that he pronounce in his stead, upon entering, those words which he himself is no longer able to utter. Poetry as life-saver, therefore, especially for its creator. Poetry which never tires of repeating, even to the younger ones not yet present, two or three essential things concerning ethics or esthetics which one no longer has the courage, the strength, or the desire to continue pronouncing aloud. Poetry as spokesman for the different stages of the soul in its evolution through the years. Poetry as privilege. I do not at all believe in the commonplace which portrays poetry as a spontaneous expression brought about by an inspiration. At most, this could be true for the first line. (As Valery used to say, the gods can certainly give the first verse; the rest is the work of the burin.) Poetry requires time, patience, skill, and techniques that must be improved and exercised continually. The privilege which I enjoy is being able to dedicate myself to the art of poetry, both as a writer of verse myself and as a professor and translator as well. By profession, therefore, thus maintaining the fundamental faculties of the poiein in constant practice. It was a matter of rain, of lakes, and of talk in a great, intensely green park, writes Anceschi in relation to the genesis of the so-called Lombard line of poetry in the early 1950s. Although bearing in mind the inevitable differences of taste and culture, I acknowledge that vein as an important point of reference for my own formation. Another is the great tradition, of wider geographic scope, which links Pascoli to Gozzano. A third is the comparative study fundamentally philological and therefore firsthand of the Romance and Germanic litera-