The risorgimento

The Canto, of twenty verses in double quartets (which recalls the meter of the Arcadian canzonetta), was composed in Pisa 7-13 April 1828 and first published in the Florence 1831 edition.

The “risorgimento” or resurrection is that of sentiment and poetry, which Leopardi felt return after a long time, and which shortly after led to the Canti from A Silvia to  Sabato del villaggio/Village Saturday.

The Canto is heavily autobiographical, as is made evident in the letters written in that year from Pisa to his sister Paolina, such as the one of 25 February (“I assure you that as concerns imagination, I feel I am back to my good old times”) and of 2 May (“after two years, I wrote some verse this April; but truly verses in my old style, and with the heart I once had”).

An important aspect of the Canto is the contrast Leopardi expresses between his rational understanding and the philosophy of “evil” on the one hand:

Dalle mie vaghe immagini

so ben ch’ella discorda:

so che natura è sorda,

che miserar non sa.

Che non del ben sollecita

fu, ma dell’esser solo:

purché ci serbi al duolo,

or d’altro a lei non cal.

So che pietà fra gli uomini

il misero non trova;

che lui, fuggendo, a prova

schernisce ogni mortal. (vv. 117-32);

And on the other hand, the inexplicable yet strong sense of joy provoked in him by the resurgence of the “palpitations” of his heart:

Pur sento in me rivivere

gl’inganni aperti e noti;

e de’ suoi proprii moti

si maraviglia il sen.

Da te, mio cor, quest’ultimo

spirto, e l’ardor natio,

ogni conforto mio

solo da te mi vien. (vv. 145-52)