Youth
To the exaltation of childhood and youth, the only ages in which happiness is possible, Leopardi dedicated some of his most beautiful verses (suffice it to recall Il sabato del villaggio).
His reflections in the Zibaldone (in particular in the Pensieri, rich in “admonishments” to the young) are extremely ample:
The only glory for the young today is in literature, or in dissipation [127-8, 130-1, 593-5] – experience of the world extinguishes the enthusiasm of the young [1165, 3440-1] – “That youth who was of heroic soul in virtue ... if per force of experience, ... is disenchanted by virtue, comes to let it go, and becomes heroic in vice” [1473-4, 2473-4] – “youth is the evident image of the ancient world” [1555-6] – the young cannot imagine that their plights can be for others a reason for laughter [1673-5] – the sensitive youth is necessarily unhappy (above all in spring) [1974-5, 2555, 2752-5, 2926-8, 3922] – “Man would be happy if his youthful illusions (and childish) were reality” [2684-5] – suicides of the young, today and in antiquity [2987-9] – the best of youth is the most disposed to mercy [3272-83, 3291-8, 3846] – if in coming to the world a youth is rejected by others, despite the fact that old age will preserve the (impossible) illusions and hope of youth, he will die in desperation [3837-42] – “In his sixties man experiences a sensitive and painful change in his life, the which is that whereas he in the past was wont for the most to deal with men either older than him or at least his age ... he then very often finds himself dealing with younger ones” [4141] – “passed the age of twenty five, every man is himself conscious of a most bitter misadventure: of the decadence of his body ... and the irrecoverable loss of his dear youth” [4287] – “that I don’t know what of divine” of a youth from the age of 16 to 18 [4310-1] – “The most unexpected thing that happens to he who commences a social life ... is to find the world as it has been described to him, and as he already knows it and believes it to be in theory. Man remains stunned to see verified in his case the general rule” [1387, 2523-4, 4525-6].
