On Fri, 15 Mar 2002 16:33:59 -0500, Candice Ward <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>Humph! Had no idea Montale was such a sly dog --he always seemed so sad to
>me, yet with flashes of a humor that could well be foxy. Thanks, Henry--
this
>quite cheers me up on a tired Freyday--C
>
Yes, he was...as his features of a bull-dog proved him to be.
Infact, he was married to a woman he really adored so that all through his
life he carefully try to hide behind verbal stratagems
(specially 'ascrostici')the names of the women he loved and wished to
possess, as in the case of Marialuisa Spaziani and Irma Brandeis.
Poets, in the Italian culture , always happen to exercise an incredible
sexual appeal, no matter how good looking they are...(for instance, teh
poorly gifted D'Annunzio was utterly adored by women who would crowd at
the gates of his Villa to see him walking at down with his 'levrieri' dogs
along the park surrounding his elegant domicile).
The most non handsome of all, being the contemporary great literary critic
and poet founder of the Gruppo '63 , Edoardo Sanguineti, (father of the
most handsome men, but really himself unattractive) who, when he was my
professor at University in Salerno, was really worshipped by all the
female students for his irresistible charm and wit. Poetry being able to
enhance the sexual 'aura', in a way and help predatory poets to get what
they want (see for this purpose what Marialuisa Spaziani - a poet
hherself - obtained by playing the 'Vixen' )....
Erminia
>
>on 3/15/02 4:18 PM, Henry Gould at [log in to unmask] wrote:
>
>> Yes, Montale's poetry, in Occasioni & Bufera e altro, is a complex
balance
>> of contrasts between, for one thing, the poet's doubts & despair & the
>> Beatrice-like metaphysical confidence of his "muse"; between the poet's
>> sense of isolation & abandonment (by her) and his own growing wonder
>> inspired by her "absence/presence"; between the hope & courage her
>> confidence brings & the hopelessness & disgust emanating from 20th-
century
>> history. . . but this is only one of Montale's themes! - another is
>> dramatized by his relation to another "muse", "the Vixen" -
>>
>> Henry
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