Ungaretti Veglia Analysis

Ungaretti Giuseppe, born in Alexandria to Italian’s parents, lived from 1888 to 1970 dying in Milan. He spent his early life in his hometown, which he left in 1912 to go to Paris – staying in Florence and Rome for short time – where he came across the social milieu of the artistic and literary avant-garde (symbolists, cubists, futurists) making the acquaintance of well-known artists such as Picasso and Modigliani. In 1915, when Italy joined the war against Austria and Germany, Ungaretti returned in the peninsula as an infantrymen on the battlefront of the Karst plateau (Ferraro, Salerno and Zulati, 2010).
Indeed, consequently to the declaration of war by the Prime Minister Antonio Salandra, the Italian army – led by General Cadorna – suffered
Veglia, written on the 23rd of December 1915, is one of the first poems which focuses on the war’s sufferings. The few lines at the beginning underline the cruelty of the war, but the poet “does not scream, […] does not hate the enemy” (Ferraro, Salerno and Zulati, 2010: 473). Instead, he opposes the death of his friend to love, writing “lettere piene d’amore” (v.13) – letters full of love. The last three verses are emblematic to understand the poet’s will to live; from the risk of death arises an impelling desire for life (Ferraro, Salerno and Zulati, 2010). On the same footing, Sono una creatura – 15th of august 1916 – highlights the concept of life and death in its last three verses: “La morte si sconta vivendo” (v. 11-12-13) refer to the sense of guilt of the living people towards the dead ones (Cortellessa, n.d.). Here, the memory of those who left is represented by the final and obscure “proverbio” – saying – and the sense of inadequacy that the poet feels is given by his survival to death (Cortellessa, n.d.). Finally, Soldati (1918) is a very short poem which includes the fragility of humankind, the nonsense of the war and the precariousness of human existence (Ferraro, Salerno and Zulati, 2010). The word ‘soldati’ – literally translated in ‘soldiers’ – can be replaced with the word ‘men’ because the poem refers to the condition all men are subjected to: no one can escape pain and death (Jesurum, n.d.). Here, as the leaves on trees fall in autumn, so people’s life is ephemeral during any conflict (Cambon, 1976). Once again, the precariousness of life is exalted by the constant presence of