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L'infinito di Giacomo Leopardi

Infinity is one of the most famous lyrics by Giacomo Leopardi's Songs. The poet wrote it in the years of his early youth in Recanati, his hometown, in the Marche. The definitive drafts date back to the years 1818-1819. The lyric, composed of 15 loose hendecasyllables, belongs to the series of writings published in 1826 under the title "Idilli". In addition to the Infinite, in this series there are also other lyrical notes, such as the moon and the evening of the day of celebration. The Greek term "idyll" (εἰδύλλιον), usually referring to poetic compositions centered on the description of rural scenes, undergoes a redefinition with Leopardi: the bucolic themes of the poems written by Greek poets Theocritus, Mosco, are absent in Leopardi's idylls Bione, and from Latin bucolic poets (Virgil, Calpurnio Siculo and Nemesiano), then imitated in the humanistic and Renaissance age by Jacopo Sannazaro and Torquato Tasso. Leopardian idyll is a composition characterized by a strong lyric intimism: in it the element of the natural landscape (often without the connotations of the ideal ancient landscape) is closely linked to the expression of the moods of man. This expression of one's own self does not want to be an escape into irrationality or into dream (as happens in romantic lyric), but only a new occasion for a broad reflection on time, on history, and on the sad destiny of men. Leopard idylls, moreover, present stylistic differences with respect to other compositions, in particular striking the skillful and wise mix of linguistic registers ranging from the literary one (Ermo colle) to the simple, piano and colloquial (Sempre caro). This idyll is divided into two distinct parts: in the first the poet expresses concepts that are usual to him while, in the second, he uses imagination and gets lost in the infinite. The original manuscript is kept at the National Library of Naples, along with other works by the poet. A second manuscript, with many other autographs, is kept in the Museum of manuscripts of the town of Visso in the province of Macerata. In October 2016, following the earthquake that struck the area, these manuscripts were temporarily transferred to Bologna.

The poem

Sempre caro mi fu quest'ermo colle, E questa siepe, che da tanta parte Dell'ultimo orizzonte il guardo esclude. Ma sedendo e mirando, interminati Spazi di là da quella, e sovrumani Silenzi, e profondissima quiete Io nel pensier mi fingo; ove per poco Il cor non si spaura. E come il vento Odo stormir tra queste piante, io quello Infinito silenzio a questa voce Vo comparando: e mi sovvien l'eterno, E le morte stagioni, e la presente E viva, e il suon di lei. Così tra questa Immensità s'annega il pensier mio: E il naufragar m'è dolce in questo mare.