Dei Sepolcri (Of the Sepulchres): Thematic Structure

Right from the start, which is distinguished by a double rhetorical question to Ippolito Pindemonte, the poem proceeds in an apparently open way that in reality aims to affirm, via a series of rapid passages and an revelatory tone, the poet's solemn truth. The epigraph «Deorum Manium Iura Sancta Sunto» (‘Sacred are the rights of the dead’) derives from the book of the 12 Tables cited by Cicero in De Legibus and it sounds like a warning that introduces the subject with special emphasis. It is possible to identify, according to the interpretation proposed by Foscolo in the Letter to M.Guillon, four thematic blocks.

In the first part (vv. 1-90) the author, after having rejected the possibility of any utility of tombs for the dead within a mechanistic, materialistic vision of existence, states the utility of tombs for the living, to which they transfer the affection left behind by their loved ones. The second part (vv. 91-150) features a collection of sepulchral customs from different times and places, from the rites of primitive ages to Catholic funeral rites and the serene pagan and English traditions. The third part (vv. 151-212) is a celebration of the civil and political value of the tombs of the greats that instil vivid virtuous and patriotic sentiments; the great Italian artists, writers and scientist buried at Santa Croce Church in Florence are remembered. The scene then moves to Greece, where at Marathon there is another example of a patriotic historic memory that is fed by funeral monuments. The fourth part (vv. 213-295) celebrates poetry itself, which conserves the memory of heroes even when times has destroyed all evidence of their existence. The poem ends with the image of Homer who draws inspiration from the ruins of the tomb of Electra and Ilus, the founder of Troy, to immortalize the value of the Greek and Trojan heroes, victors and defeated united by a shared destiny.