Friday, 13 February 2015

Similarities in the poetry of Emily Dickinson and Eugenio Montale



            Similarities in the poetry of Emily Dickinson and Eugenio Montale

The purpose of this paper is to point out the similarities between the poetry of Emily Dickinson and that of Eugenio Montale, showing how poets coming from different countries express similar ideas using similar techniques. The poetry of Dickinson and Montale is fragmented, brief, concise, and it conveys many ideas through a minimal use of words. Both of them utilize punctuation in a creative way, especially dashes. Their sentences are usually made of noun phrases and lack verbs, which creates a fragmented poetry that sounds artificial to the readers’ ears. In their poetry, they focus on different aspects of nature, using it as a means of conveying their messages to the world.
In order to understand more the similarities between these two poets, first they have to be analyzed separately, focusing on the different techniques and ideas present in various poems for each author, and after this the researcher will link the two poets together, by pointing out their resemblance in a more detailed way, and by proving how analogous their poetry is. 
Moving chronologically,
Emily Dickinson’s poetry was influenced by the reading of Shakespeare, Milton, the Metaphysical poets, and contemporary writers like Emily Brontë and Robert Browning. Besides, the same forces that had long dominated New England – the Puritan tradition and Emerson’s transcendentalism – contributed to shaping her mind. However, she combined all these influences in a highly original way, detached from current taste, from the great events and contrasts of the age. ( Spiazzi & Tavella E190)
Her themes are related to universal aspects of life, such as death, love, nature, God and despair. She wrote this poetry while being alone in her room, after eliminating any link to the external world, and after choosing to spend the rest of her life isolated in her house. There her only companions were paper and pen, with which she wrote the unconventional poems readers are fascinated by till today. The majority of her poems were not published, but found in her room after her death. She chose not to publish them, because she was aware of the difficulty and uniqueness of her poetry, and that it would have not been understood nor liked by the audience, because it was too enigmatic. “[H]er poetry is concerned with questions, intuitions, and moods, rather than statements and assertions”. (Spiazzi & Tavella E191) She was conscious that she was writing something innovative, and that her society was not accustomed to innovation.
As a reflection of her isolation and solitude, her poems are a manifestation of what she has inside; they are very personal, like mirrors of her soul. Dickinson’s source of inspiration is nature, which lightens her spirit and makes her intellect ready to create new poems. Her sleeping feelings are awakened by natural landscapes, by birds’ songs, by bees and butterflies flying around, and by the smell of flowers. All these aspects of nature are personified in Dickinson’s poetry, because they have a very significant role in her inspiration. In A History and Anthology of English Literature, Spiazzi and Tavella highlight this, by saying that
[n]ature plays an important part in Dickinson’s poetry, it can be presented in three ways: through and objective description; by juxtaposing the thing observed and the soul of the observer, so that the natural datum leads to philosophical speculation; and as a source of imagery to emphasize and abstract concept or theme. In the poems the “I”, the speaking voice, becomes a bee (which constantly symbolized the poet), a spider, a bird, a blade of grass, lilacs, in a vision of the world where microcosm is fitted into macrocosm structure. (E190)          
In Dickinson’s poetry, “[s]yntax and punctuation are combined in such a way that the meaning of the poems remains ambiguous, highlighting the emotion.” (Spiazzi & Tavella E190) She uses dashes and capitalization to emphasize certain words and to create suspense, and these two elements are highly significant in Dickinson’s poetry.  Her use of capitalization is something difficult to be interpreted. There is no clear rule for this technique, but critics say that “[b]y capitalizing words that are not normally capitalized, the poet is pointing to them, lifting them up, as it were, in her hierarchy of importance.” (Leiter 262) Another function can be that of saying that the capitalized word should be read symbolically, or that it has a hidden meaning readers have to discover. It is as if Dickinson wants to give dignity to what she is saying, and to tell readers that the world she is describing is different from the one they see. She is aware of what she is doing, “[s]he may have capitalized every noun in her [poems], but the fact that only selected words are so treated in the poems points to a conscious artistic choice.” (Leiter 263)
Concerning the use of dashes there are different interpretations for this.
Since Dickinson inserted dashes into everything she wrote, letters, household notes, even cake recipes, Franklin denies the possibility that she used them in any purposeful way in her poems. Weisbuch, who notes that Dickinson’s dashes are borrowed from the common punctuation of 19th-century letters, disagrees, arguing that while she may have used them habitually in all her writings, she used them consciously in her poems. (Leiter 375)
Weisbuch’s point of view is more acceptable, because like capitalized words, dashes are used by Dickinson to make readers reflect on words coming before and after the dash, to make them stop on that particular part of the poem, in order to grasp the meaning she wants to convey. 
The dash typically forces the reader continually to reinterpret meanings. It gives a quality of immediacy to the poems, makes them seem to develop before our eyes.” (quoted in Critical Companion to Emily Dickinson, 375-376)
In addition to this, grammatical links between words are rare; Dickinson’s poems are consequently fragmented and brief. Therefore, “[h]er poetry is primarily one of economy and control. Her language is characterized prevalently by monosyllabic words, by terms from unconventional sources – law, geometry, engineering- , by common words that come alive in unusual contexts.” (Spiazzi & Tavella E190)  Her poetry is like a dance, which is not harmonious, but instead made of discordant movements. Because of the absence of links between the words, this dance moves from one word to the other in a way similar to jumping rather than dancing, conveying a sense of disconnectedness and confusion. Verbs are usually used in the infinitive form, symbolizing a language almost metaphysical. The fact that Dickinson’s poetry is fragmented and concise does not mean that she does not makes use of rhetorical devices: she uses imperfect rhyme, metaphor, paradox, assonance and alliteration. Her poems are short and compressed, sometimes with an ironical tone, and other times with a melancholic one.
All these innovative aspects of Dickinson’s poetry are visible in poems like “This is my letter to the World” and “Bring me the sunset in a cup”. Concerning the first poem,   with the first line – “This is my letter to the World”- Emily Dickinson introduces the subject of her poem. It is a letter through which she wants to convey a certain message to the world in which she lives. She decides to write this letter, despite the fact that this world never wrote a letter to her. Dickinson capitalizes the words “World” and “Me” (ll. 1-2) to emphasize the contrast between the two, to highlight that these two entities are separated, and that the world is not in harmony with her. After that, she addresses the people of her time, by saying that her poetry is about “[t]he Simple News that Nature told” (l.3), and about what nature made her feel. Since her poetry has not seen light yet, and it is enclosed in Dickinson’s room, she does not know her audience yet, thus “[h]er Message is committed/ To Hands [She] cannot see” (ll. 5-6).  Dickinson concludes her poem asking this audience to judge her tenderly, even if the content of her poems seems difficult or strange. She asks them to give her a chance, to listen to what she has to say, and to try to understand her way of seeing life – “For love of Her – Sweet- countrymen- / Judge tenderly- of Me” (ll.7-8).
This short and fragmented poem presents Dickinson’s use of capitalization and dashes to separate ideas and words or to emphasize them. Dickinson capitalizes the words “World” (l.1), “Me” (l.2), “Simple News” (l.3), “Nature” (l.3), “Majesty” (l.4), “Message” (l.5), “Hands” (l.6), “Her-Sweet” (l.7), “Judge” (l.8) and again “Me” (l.8), capitalizing a word or two in each line. If one reads these words separately, one finds out that they are the keywords of the poem, those which express the main idea Dickinson wants to communicate. Moreover, this idea of emphasis is augmented by the use of dashes, such as in “Her-Sweet-countrymen” (l.7): in this phase Dickinson separates each word from the other, making readers read them slowly, as if she is addressing the real countrymen in a speech, asking them to be kind and tender in their judgment of her.  This poem symbolizes Dickinson’s poetry in general, not only through the technique used, but also through the idea conveyed, that of a unique, unconventional and innovative poetry that may be not accepted by the audience of that time.
The second poem - “Bring me the sunset in a cup”- shows the originality of Dickinson’s poetry, and how innovative her use of imagery is. From the very first stanza readers are faced with an unusual description of nature. The poetess wants a cup of sunset, and she expresses this desire as if it is something common. Sunset, through this metaphor, becomes something to be brought and measured, and to be put inside a cup. Moreover, she wants to count the flask of dew. For her nature is something that can be counted and measured, something that can be enjoyed like a cup of tea.
After readers are introduced to these curious desires, morning suddenly “leaps”, and it is as if the light of the sun invades readers’ eyes.  Everything is lighted up by this shining morning, which conveys positive feelings, like happiness and peace of mind. In the second stanza this magical aspect of nature augments. The poetess wants to count all those things that normally cannot be counted, and with this, Dickinson wants to say that everything in the world should be examined and understood by man, and that there is nothing incomprehensible.  Bees drink the dew, and the poetess wants to know how many cups they drink. The poetess and bees both drink cups of nature, and this creates a stronger bond between man and nature, emphasizing the major theme of the poem.
In the final stanza, there is a shift of mood and ideas; Dickinson realizes that human beings cannot see the reality of things, and that they cannot access to everything in the world. Moreover, she realizes that she is entrapped in her body and soul, and that the only way out is to die, which is the ultimate destiny of man, and the only real truth about life. She discovers she cannot have a cup of sunset, and that she cannot enter the realm of nature as she wants. This image contrasts with the lively and energetic images of the rest of the poem, in which readers perceive life as something positive in which the poetess enjoys herself. In the last verses, readers feel that the speaker is somebody who is not living, but who has died, and this sudden change in tone and mood, is the way through which Dickinson transmits her final message, which is that the only reality in this world is death, and that man cannot enjoy nature and life fully because his destiny is to die at the end.
What is unique about this poem is not only the extended metaphor of counting the various aspects of nature, but also the sudden change in mood, which is something typical of Dickinson. Through the creative metaphors like “sunset in a cup” (l.7), Dickinson creates an exclusive atmosphere, making readers feel this is a poem about happiness and nature. However, when suddenly readers find out that this is an illusion, and that the only physical reality is that of death, they are shocked, and this is a usual reaction to Dickinson’s poetry, since it is full of surprises and unexpected ideas.
This originality characterizes also the poetry of Eugenio Montale, an Italian poet, who is considered one of the best Italian poets, and also a very important one in European poetry of the 20th century. His poetry is concise, to the point and rich with philosophical ideas. His style reflects the uncertainty and futility of modern life. Through his brief poems, he conveys all the negative feelings modern man experiences personally in his everyday life, creating a poetry that documents how life really is. Montale was not only interested in Italian poetry, but he also read and translated many European works, such as the poetry of Dickinson herself. This interest in English poetry influenced him a lot, and
[n]ell’Intervista immaginaria, Montale sostiene che la lingua inglese ha influenzato considerevolmente la sua produzione poetica, in particolare i componimenti raccolti nelle Occasioni; ciò probabilmente perché fu durante il periodo della stesura di questa raccolta che il poeta si aprì alle esperienze della poesia anglosassone (anni ’28-‘40). I dispositivi formali elaborati fino a quel momento grazie alla sua attività di traduttore erano stati assimilati e venivano quindi attivati nella sua produzione¹. ( Crivelli 16)

Like for Dickinson, his style is not an elevated one, but he rather uses everyday language, in order to make readers feel that what he is describing is something they can perceive personally. He also focuses on nature, creating innovative images, with the purpose of making people feel that the union between man and nature is illusionary, like in Dickinson’s poem “Bring me the sunset in a cup”. For Montale as well nature does not reveal its secrets, it cannot be tasted in a cup, nor even understood. His poetry is realistic and pessimistic, and as it is illustrated in La Scrittura e l’Interpretazione, “la poesia é vissuta come un sostituto della vita, cioè come una forma di vita sostitutiva per chi veramente non vive; nasce da una “totale disarmonia con la realtà” ². (Luperini, Cataldi, Marchiani & Tinacci 281)
For modern man poetry is one of the means through which he expresses what he has inside; it is his way of proving that he is alive, but sometimes even poetry is not able to make modern man happy. This man realizes that there is no way out to his depressing destiny, and that he is fated to be imprisoned in a world that has no room for him. This reminds one of Dickinson and of her secluded life, showing that this sense of disillusionment and depression was something common for poets of the 19th and 20th century. “Alla fine il pessimismo trionfa: non solo l’aspirazione al divino e all’eterno risulta irrimediabilmente frustrata, ma il destino stesso della poesia sembra segnato; cosicché al poeta non resta che immaginarsi chiuso in una prigione.” ³ (Luperini, Cataldi, Marchiani & Tinacci 285)
The affinity between Dickinson’s poetry and that of Montale is not just thematic, but also stylistic. Montale writes poems that are brief, to the point, in which readers find the use of dashes – typical of Dickinson- but also the use of other types of punctuation. In Montale there is no random capitalization like in Dickinson, neither at the beginning of each verse, because his poetry is based on enjambments, and consequently he continues his sentences as if they are written in prose. As a result, Montale organizes his verses in a way that words are emphasized without the need of capitalization or any other device. Montale’s poetry is more similar to the normal use of language, while Dickinson is more artificial. However, the fragmented nature of Montale’s poetry inevitably reminds one of that of the American poet.
            In his poem “Meriggiare pallido e assorto”4, Montale describes a hot summer afternoon with all its natural elements; however, it is not a positive description, because the poet is observing all this from a distance, he is not part of this wonderful landscape, and this symbolizes how painful his life is. As for Dickinson, the majority of verses are made of noun phrases, and verbs, which are rare and mostly in the infinitive form, like “meriggiare” (l.1), “ascoltare” (l.3), “spiar” (l.6), “osservare” (l.9), and “sentire” (l.14)5.  The idea of originality, already discussed in Dickinson’s poetry, is also present in this poem. In the very first verse, Montale describes the verb “to slump” as being thought-sick and pale, which are usually adjectives used to describe human beings. This indirectly refers to the poet, but in using an infinitive verb instead of the pronoun “I”, Montale wants to highlight the idea that modern man has no power, he cannot take action, nor dominate nature, and this is why he cannot even talk about himself.
This pessimism is increased by the harsh use of rhymes, evident more in the original than in the translation, like for instance “sterpi/serpi” (ll. 3-4), “formiche/biche” (ll.6 and 8) and “scricchi/picchi” (ll.11-12), which are full of consonants, and consequently give an impression that life is full of hard moments and battles – the so-called “travaglio” (l. 15). Moreover, the last three verses emphasize the cynical view that Montale has of life, full of barriers: “com’è tutta la vita e il suo travaglio/ in questo seguitare una muraglia/ che ha in cima cocci aguzzi di bottiglia.”6 (ll. 15-17)
            All these ideas are accentuated in another poem called “Spesso il male di vivere ho incontrato”7, in which the negativity of life with all its suffering is juxtaposed with the idea of indifference, represented by a statue, a cloud and the hawk. The statue symbolizes the attitude man has to have in order to live happily, which is that of being indifferent to the ugliness of life and to be impassive; the cloud and hawk are up in the sky, distant, and consequently they do not share what man feels, symbolizing indifference too. Thus, the poem presents life through the images of the stream, leaf and horse, but sadly these are not positive aspects of life, because from the very beginning Montale says that this is the ill of living that he has met.  As a result, the only solution to this is to live without feelings and to be uncaring. Since this is the only way out Montale finds, he capitalizes the word “Indifferenza”8, to emphasize it, and this reminds one again of Dickinson.  
            The influence of Dickinson is clear from his style and his themes, and this interest in English literature and especially in Dickinson is proven by Montale’s translation of Dickinson’s poem “The Storm”9.  It is a poem in which the destructive power of the wind is juxtaposed to the peaceful landscape. Dickinson starts by describing the wind and its sound (ll. 1-4), then she compares it to a ghost and the lightning to an electric serpent (ll. 6-7). After that comes the description of the destructive effects of the wind on houses and on man (ll. 9-14), and finally, in the last three verses, Dickinson encapsulates the message of the poem, which is that things change, but life goes on.
            Regarding the meter, this poem is composed in free verse. There are no enjambments, and she puts the verb at the end of the verse to create suspense and also to put emphasis on the action, such as in “did pass” (l. 4) or “passed” (l.8). Dickinson uses alliterations, such as in “fences/fled” (l.10), “rivers/ran” (l. 11), “within/wild” (l. 13). Moreover, Crivelli claims that “la sostituzione della punteggiatura con gli hyphens contribuisce ad aumentare [l’effetto] di ambiguità.”(5) 10 With his original style Dickinson “[c]onferisce solidità strutturale al testo, dando origine a un quadro vivo e concreto, tanto da coinvolgere il lettore il quale fin dall’inizio percepisce una sensazione di disagio e sperimenta in modo diretto l’effetto del poema.” 11 (Crivelli 7) In this poem readers are faced with the destructiveness of nature and the vulnerability of man. “La tempesta distrugge i simboli della civiltà: gli steccati e le case e con essi l’uomo stesso” 12 (Crivelli 7), and this is highlighted by the personifications “Fences fled away” (l.10), “the Houses ran” (l. 11), and “the Bell...told” (ll. 13-14). In these few lines Dickinson has represented nature with all its destructive force in a very concrete way, catching readers’ attention.
            Concerning Montale’s translation of this poem13, it was difficult to maintain the same meter and rhythm because Italian language is polysyllabic, while Dickinson uses monosyllabic words, typical of the English language.  However, with the use of alliteration and assonance, he gives a monosyllabic effect to the poem, like in lines 2-3, in which Montale emphasizes sounds /ve/, /v/ and /rb/ in “Il vento arrive, scosse l’erba/ un verde brivido diaccio”. Readers also find the assonance of sounds /r/ and /t/ in “sbarrammo le porte e le finestre/ quasi entrasse uno spettro di smeraldo: / e fu certo l’elettrico” (ll. 5-7). In addition to this, Montale omits some words related to time and space, such as “there” (l.1) and “that very day” (l.8) in order to make verses briefer. (Crivelli 14) Finally, Montale does not use hyphens or capitalization, in order to make the poem more similar to the standard Italian poems.
 In conclusion, through the analysis of different poems by Dickinson and Montale, it is clear that there are similarities between the two, and by analyzing how Montale translated “The Storm”, one realizes how important Dickinson’s poetry is to him, and how similar stylistic devices and ideas can be found in poets from different countries, who have different artistic backgrounds. Consequently, poetry is something universal, that goes beyond borders, and that conveys messages that are valid for mankind in general.
           




















Notes

¹ In an interview called Imaginary interview, Montale argues that English language has considerably influenced his poetic production, especially the essays collected in The Occasions; probably because it was during the period in which he wrote this collection that the poet was interested in  Anglo-Saxon poetry (years '28-'40). The formal devices developed thanks to his work as a translator were then used by him in his production.
² “Poetry is seen as a substitute for life, that is, a replacement for life for those who are not really alive; it comes from a "total disharmony with reality."
³ “At the end pessimism prevails: not only the aspiration to the divine and the eternal proves to be hopeless, but also poetry seems to have no real function; therefore, the only thing that remains to the poet is to imagine himself locked in a prison.”
 4“To slump at noon thought-sick and pale”
5“To slump”, “to hear”, “to spy”, “to observe”, and “to feel”.
6 “how all life and its battles/ is in this walk alongside a wall/ topped with sharp bits of glass from broken bottles.”
 7Often have I met the ill of living
8“Indifference”
9 This title was given by the publisher in Poems by Emily Dickinson, Second Series, edited by T.W. Higginson and M.L. Todd, Robert Brothers, Boston, 1891. (Crivelli 11)
10“By using hyphens instead of other types of punctuation the sense of ambiguity is increased”.
11 “[gives]  structural strength to the text,  portraying things in a concrete way, so as to engage the reader from very beginning, making him feel discomfort and directly experiencing the effect of the poem.”
12“The storm destroys all symbols of civilization: fences, houses and with them man himself.”
13“La traduzione di questa poesia fu pubblicata a Firenze il 7 Aprile del 1945 su...’Il Mondo’”. / “The translation of this poem was published in Florence on April 7, 1945 ... in a magazine called 'The World’ “ (Crivelli 11)






Appendix

“This is my letter to the World” – Emily Dickinson
This is my letter to the World
That never wrote to Me-
The Simple News that Nature told-
With tender Majesty
Her Message is committed
To Hands I cannot see-
For love of Her-Sweet-countrymen-
Judge tenderly-of Me


“Bring me the sunset in a cup” – Emily Dickinson
Bring me the sunset in a cup,
Reckon the morning's flagons up
And say how many Dew,
Tell me how far the morning leaps-
Tell me what time the weaver sleeps
Who spun the breadths of blue!
Write me how many notes there be
In the new Robin's ecstasy
Among astonished boughs -
How many trips the Tortoise makes-
How many cups the Bee partakes,
The Debauchee of Dews!
Also, who laid the Rainbow's piers,
Also, who leads the docile spheres
By withes of supple blue?
Whose fingers string the stalactite -
Who counts the wampum of the night
To see that none is due?
Who built this little Alban House
And shut the windows down so close
My spirIt cannot see?
Who'll let me out some gala day
With implements to flyaway,
Passmg Pomposity?



“Meriggiare pallido e assorto”- Eugenio Montale
Meriggiare pallido e assorto                                                   
presso un rovente muro d’orto,
ascoltare tra i pruni e gli sterpi
schiocchi di merli, frusci di serpi.

Nelle crepe del suolo o su la veccia
spiar le file di rosse formiche
ch’ora si rompono ed ora s’intrecciano
a sommo di minuscole biche.

Osservare tra frondi il palpitare
lontano di scaglie di mare
m entre si levano tremuli scricchi
di cicale dai calvi picchi.

E andando nel sole che abbaglia
sentire con triste meraviglia
com’è tutta la vita e il suo travaglio
in questo seguitare una muraglia
che ha in cima cocci aguzzi di bottiglia.
Translation by Millicent Bell
To slump at noon thought-sick and pale
under the scorching garden wall,
to hear a snake scrape past, the blackbirds creak
in the dry thorn thicket, the brushwood brake.

Between tufts of vetch, in the cracks of the ground
to spy out the ants’ long lines of march;
now they reach the top of a crumb-sized mound,
the lines break, they stumble into a ditch.

To observe between the leaves the pulse
beneath the sea’s scaly skin,
while from the dry cliffs the cicada calls
like a knife on the grinder’s stone.

And going into the sun’s blaze
once more, to feel, with sad surprise
how all life and its battles
is in this walk alongside a wall
topped with sharp bits of glass from broken bottles.


“Spesso il male di vivere ho incontrato” – Eugenio Montale


Spesso il male di vivere ho incontrato:
era il rivo strozzato che gorgoglia,
era l'incartocciarsi della foglia
riarsa, era il cavallo stramazzato.

Bene non seppi, fuori del prodigio
che schiude la divina Indifferenza:
era la statua nella sonnolenza
del meriggio, e la nuvola, e il falco alto levato. 

Translation by A. Baruffi

Often have I met the ill of living:
it was the choked stream that gurgles,
it was the shriveling of a leaf,
parched, it was the horse, crashed.

Good I have not known, outside the miracle
which discloses divine's Indifference:
it was the statue in the somnolence
of noon, and the cloud, and the lofty hawk.



  
“The Storm” – Emily Dickinson


There came a Wind like a Bugle –
It quivered through the Grass                        
And a Green Chill upon the Heat
So ominous did pass
We barred the Windows and the Doors
As from an Emerald Ghost –
The Doom’s electric Moccasin
That very instant passed –
On a strange Mob of panting Trees
And Fences fled away
And Rivers where the Houses ran
Those looked that lived – that Day –
The Bell within the steeple wild
The flying tidings told –
How much can come
And much can go,
And yet abide the World!

Translation by Eugenio Montale
Con un suono di corno
Il vento arrivò, scosse l’erba;
un verde brivido diaccio
così sinistro passò nel caldo
che sbarrammo le porte e le finestre
quasi entrasse uno spettro di smeraldo:
e fu certo l’elettrico
segnale del Giudizio.
Una bizzarra turba di ansimanti
Alberi, siepi alla deriva
E case in fuga nei fiumi
È ciò che videro i vivi.
Tocchi del campanile desolato
Mulinavano le ultime nuove.
Quanto può giungere,
quanto può andarsene,
in un mondo che non si muove!


Works Cited

Crivelli, T. “La Tempesta di Emily Dickinson nella Traduzione di Eugenio Montale”. Universität Zürich – Romanisches Seminar, 2005. 1-31. Web. 22 April 2014. <http://www.rose.uzh.ch/seminar/personen/crivelli/Didattica/Studente/EmilyDickinson_Montale.pdf>
Leiter, S. Critical Companion to Emily Dickinson. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2007. Print.
Luperini, R., Cataldi, P., Marchiani, L. & Tinacci V. La Scrittura e l’Interpretazione. Milano: G.B. Palumbo & C. Editore, 2005. Print.
Spiazzi, M. & Tavella M. Only Connect- A History and Anthology of English Literature. Bologna: Zanichelli, 2000. Print.