What Would Be Possible if Poetry Were Still Possible? And What Would Nature Have to Do with It? Reconsidering the Work of Eugenio Montale

Abstract

This essay puts forth a definition of poetry rooted in experience. In following Eugenio Montale, it analyzes two of his poems – “I limoni” and “Notizie dall’Amiata” – to  show how the poet, rather than constructing discrete poetic worlds, aims at a poetry  revealing the world and nature to a concrete reader, unforeseeable for the poet.  Poetry thus aims at imbuing this reader’s life with an ephemeral poetic form, rather  than evoking its own self-sufficient aesthetics. In doing so, chance and flaws in  the social and cultural construction of reality act as co-authors of his “poesia”