Poetry

Leopardi’s reflections upon poetry and  literature in general in the Zibaldone are naturally extremely rich:

It is pleasurable immediately, if not reduced to art [21, 39-40] – “Everything has been perfected from Homer on, but not poetry” [58] – on the theory of the “ardiri” or the doing of daring things, that are born of the use of the “vago” or the eagerness for things[61] – for poetic invention the use of enthusiasm is unnecessary and can indeed be harmful: “One requires a time of strength, but tranquil” [258-9] – the works of genius console also when they show the nullity of things [259-62] – poetry requires “a mixture of persuasion and passion or illusion” [285-7] – today poetry is “sentimental”, in antiquity it was “imaginative”: “From which one can easily understand that poetry is really not something that belongs to our times” [100, 734-5, 2025-6] – “the more philosophical it is, the less it is poetry” [1229, 1231]; and yet there are some extraordinary spirits that are “great modern philosophers who are supremely poetic” [1383, 1650-1, 3245] – the effect of poetry, and judgement of it, derive from the remembrance it provokes: so both vary according to the reader [1799, 1804-5, 4427] – the first sages expressed themselves in poetry [2941-2] – one cannot give contemporary poetry in an “egoistic and metaphysical” century, and without illusions [2944-6] – it provokes the “moving and the agitation of the spirit” [3123, 3138-9, 3454-6] – the poet must not look for novelty, but embellish the most beautiful things known [3221-2] – poetic spirit decreases with age [3344] – poetry and philosophy are the best qualities of the human spirit, yet today, unlike in antiquity, they are treated with contempt [3382-7] – there are only three types of poetry: lyrical, epic and dramatic; all others are a form of these [4234-6, 4476] – poetry “essentially exists in an impetus” [4356] – “The poet does not imitate nature ... he is not an imitator if not of himself” [4372-3] – the “poetic” “one discovers always consists of the distant, the indefinite, in eagerness” [4426] – a piece of true contemporary poetry “adds a thread to the very short spread of cloth that is our life” [4450].