Marzo 1821

In a letter to Fauriel, Manzoni described 1821 as the saddest year he had experienced. That year he had seen the failure of the liberals’ revolts in Naples and Piedmont. Hopes were dashed also regarding action (in March) in Lombardy by the Piedmontese patriots, with the support of Carlo Alberto of Savoy. The trials against the Lombard liberals had forced the group of friends on the Conciliatore to disband. This setback and other reasons meant that Manzoni did not publish straightaway his civic ode Marzo 1821, which he had written that year. It appeared only in the Quarantotto (1848), during the “five days” of Milan. The ode is an extremely patriotic poem, with a metrical structure of decasylllable lines with three accents that was also used by other Risorgimento poets, such as Berchet (Il giuramento di Pontida) and in a melodrama by Verdi (Va’, pensiero, sull’ali dorate). The poem expresses energetically some of the key concepts of Italian Romanticism, particularly the concepts of “the nation” and “the people”. It is awareness of their shared and worthy values that will transform the people, from volgo spregiato and the slaves of foreigners into a single nation (una d’arme, di lingua, d’altare, / di memorie, di sangue e di cor). The other central concept in the poem, and one that Manzoni learned from the lesson of the Neapolitan exiles and by reading Foscolo, is that liberty and independence are achieved through effort and sacrifice. The ode is dedicated to Theodore Koerner, poet and soldier of the German independence who died on the battlefield while fighting against Napoleon’s troops at Leipzig, sacrificing his life for the liberty of the fatherland. The poem combines patriotic inspiration with religion, since the oppressed Italian desire for freedom is heard by God, Padre di tutte le genti: just as he saved Israel from the Pharaoh, so he will come to the aid of the itale genti (Italic peoples) against the Germano. As in the first chorus of the Adelchi, where the Latins are oppressed by the foreigner, a biblical light shines on the political claims of the Lombards and Italians, thus elevating the Risorgimento to Providence’s plan.