Excerpt from Studies on Leopardi, Vol. 1

An analysis of it will be given presently.

Many attempts have been made to explain the failure of romanticism to gain a firm foothold in Italy. In the dearth of better examples Leopardi is often cited as an exponent of this movement, so popular in other countries. This statement is always made with distinct reservations, and the conclusion is generally reached that Leopardi was a severe classicist in form, but was influenced by many elements contributing to the romantic outbreak. Much has been said in support of both contentions, and examination of the "Canti" and of the "Prose Morali" would seem to disclose a reasonable basis for both views.

The "Zibaldone" and other miscellaneous writings shed a great deal of light upon Leopardi's attitude. Although the major portion of what he writes is distinctly inimical to romanticism, it is quite often the case that he shows leanings and desires that may well be called romantic. Strongly influenced by his reading of French philosophical writers, by his own natural inclinations and by his bodily suffering, he devotes page after page of his notes to a glorification, in fact to a deification of nature and of the primitive stages of human history. His whole being is in revolt against the conditions that surround him. He builds up a system of philosophy that has as one of its elements the unavoidable misery of man in the condition of civilization and in the presence of truth.

Turning to other documents, we find among Leopardi's suppressed productions a number of efforts characterized by romanticism. Among these is the "Diario d'Amore, " written in 1819 at the age of nineteen years, an unfinished and extravagant conception based upon a sudden and violent fancy of the poet for his cousin Geltrude Cassi. Two canzoni found among the Neapolitan papers also bear testimony to his romantic leanings.

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