Volponi and Desired Exile

Abstract

In one of his early poems Volponi, referring to the city of his birth, wrote: La nemica figura che mi resta,! l'immagine di Urbino/ che io non posso fuggire,/ la sua crudele festaj quieta tra Ie mie ire. II Questo lasciare/ se io avessi I' ardire/ di lasciare· Ie mie carel piaghe guarire.1 The abundant contradictions expressed in these verses (crudele festa, quieta ire, care piaghe) are suggestive of the psychological conflict that characterizes Volponi' s life and literature. Central to this poetic statement is the verb fuggire and the inability to flee from Urbino. But the obstacle to leaving is not external but rather internal. What is lacking is the courage to leave what is familiar and secure even when they are also painful. Flight is expressed less as a desire than as a duty dovrei lasciare. But why does the poet feel this obligation? The final stanza of the poem may contain an answer: Allora i giardini pensili/ piegano l'ombra ostile dei pini/ verso quel punto dell'orizzontej nuovo ogni sera,/ dove io non giungero mail libero dai miei cattivi pensieri,/ dalla sorte nemical che il mio amore castiga (107). It is the realm of the unexplored and the unexperienced that causes in the poet a feeling of unfulfillment. The constant and contradictory themes in Volponi' s early poetry, especially in the collection Le porte dell' Appennino, is on the one hand the affectionate description of the unchanging land with the repetition of its seasons, and on the other an admiration and almost envy of all that is migratory. In his 1948 introduction to II ramarro, Volponi' s first collection of published poetry, Carlo Bo declared, Certamente it gesto piu evidente della sua voce e determinato dalla forza, dalla liberal del suo atteggiamento.2 This freedom of expression was understandably admired and praised in as much as it was among the very first new poetic voices to make itself heard after so many years of the