Italia

• What words are repeated? What effect does this create?
• How can we understand the expressions ‘sono un grumo di sogni’ and ‘sono un frutto d’innumerevoli contrasti d’innesti’ in terms of Ungaretti’s own life?
• What associations derive from the words ‘popolo’, ‘terra’, ‘Italia’, ‘padre’, ‘soldato’?
• What view of war is presented in this poem?

 

Girovago

• How do the poem’s style and form relate to its title?
• How does the poem relate to Ungaretti’s life?
• What is he searching for?
• How is the life of the nomad represented here?

In dormiveglia

• Create a ‘mind map’ centered on the words ‘lace’ and ‘war’.
• The poem hinges on a series of juxtapositions. Identify and discuss these.
• Discuss the extended metaphor around which the poem is structured.
• The poem starts with the phrase ‘assisto la notte violentata’. In what other circumstances would you use the verb ‘assistere’ and what are the implications here?
• Examine the use of consonance (repetition of consonant sound) in lines 3, 5 and 6.