Seminar Week 4
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.