Harmony is a central theme in Foscolo's poetry and it is one that is closely linked to the concept of poetry itself, perceived as an expression of human civilization capable of harmonizing social relations and providing a reassuring vision of existence, albeit an illusory one. In the Pavia lectures Foscolo expounded a theory of social pacification and concord among citizens which literature contributes to in a crucial way; indeed the arts can help relations between rulers and the people, they can represent the truth with balance and pleasurably instil it into citizens' minds, without destroying the illusions that are necessary for individual happiness.
Harmony appears as one of the dominant themes in Le Grazie; it corresponds to a force of cohesion and balance among the forces of the universe and can be identified as a sort of law of universal love that dominates the world and enables man to overcome a widespread condition of suffering and pain. In the proem to the poem, the tradition invocation to the Muses (vv. 1-8) is directed at the Graces themselves, the inspirers of a poem that from the start represented a “armoniosa melodia” ("harmonious melody") capable of consoling men and overcoming the tensions of the present. Foscolo devoted a long, complex part of the second Hymn (Grazie, Redazione del Quadernone, The Graces, Writing of the Big Notebook) starting from verse 97 to a definition of universal harmony. This concept is comparable with that of universal love which should be understood in the secular sense, according to the poet's materialistic philosophy, as a force of cohesion and a way to sublimate fear of death, capable of conferring a sublime dimension to man with effects on civil coexistence and concord between citizens. Through the actions of the Graces, harmony distances man from the experience of his limitations and gives him the illusion of an almost divine identity that enables him to overcome the upsets caused by chance and the negative nature of existence.
Harmony
