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
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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