XX. "Il Risorgimento" is the pearl of this collection.
"Credei ch'ai tutto fossero In me, sul fier degl 'anni, Mancati i dolci affanni Della mia prima età: I dolci affanni, i teneri Moti del cor profondo, Qualunque cosa al mondo Grato il sentir ci fa."
What melody and sweetness of style! How richly h e describes his gloom, and how vividly his revival to the joys of life!
"Meco ritorna a vivere La piaggia, il bosco, il monte; Parla al mio core il fonte, Meco favella il mar."
"Mancano, il sento, all anima, Alta, gentile e pura, La sorte, la natura, Il mondo e la beltà. Ma se tu vivi, O misero, Se non concedi al fato, Non chiamerò spietato Chi lo spirar mi dà."
Of the other poems I hope I have been able to give an almost adequate rendering; but of this, such a rendering was impossible. The sense is so blended with the music of the verse, and the music is so peculiar to the Italian language, that I doubt whether any translation could ever do it full justice. It is quite unique among his works. He never wrote anything before or afterwards even remotely like it. He seems to have revelled in the sweetness of the melody, and to have sported with his sorrow in the music of the lines.
XXI. "A Silvia." The subject of this poem was a young girl of Recanati, whom the poet and his brother Carlo used frequently to see in their young days. It is a beautiful specimen of his almost supernatural powers of concentration and depth. From bewailing her untimely end, the poet rises to contemplate the vanity of earthly things. "Before such masterpieces," Montefredini justly observes, "as 'Silvia' and the 'Passero Solitario,' we are struck dumb with admiration." It is an instance of how powerful an effect a great writer can produce by slight means.
XXII. "Le Ricordanze." If I were asked to award the palm to one above all the other "Canti," I should name the "Ricordanze." It offers a combination of the rarest beauties. Possessing the highest biographical interest as a picture of his youth, it invests all the visions it conjures up with the richest poetical colouring. The reader will observe how simple is the opening, and how the verses gradually rise in thought and style until they reach the splendid outburst: