Sono Una Creature Analysis

Giuseppe Ungaretti (1888-1970) is considered by some critics, the greatest Italian poet of the 20th Century. He served an infantryman on the lower Isonzo front from the 1915 until early 1918. In the spring, he was transferred to the Western Front where Italian forces fought with distinction. Ungaretti contributed some of the most revolutionary lyric poems to an illustrious and somewhat stilted tradition. These poems were written during the war, and the poet’s war experience becomes a paradigm for the human condition. L’allegria di naufragi was published in 1919. The title translates to ‘Joy of shipwrecks’, and the poet once explained himself that - “everything is indeed a shipwreck, overwhelmed, stifled, consumed by time”.

“..Papi insists that the reasons behind Ungaretti’s active support for the First World War were more psychological than political, and a brief survey for Ungaretti’s early years provides much evidence to support this view.” …show more content…
The San Michele mountain consists of porous rocks where rain is absorbed by the ground immediately. Similar to water that is immediately absorbed is the cry of the poet, a cry without tears, which is a pain that drains the soul. Ungaretti has suffered so much yet he has no more tears to cry. The poem reflects the landscape of the Karst region, dry and cold. His pain can be compared to a stone that it is lifeless. “Come questa pietra è il mio pianto che none si vede”
“Ungaretti with ‘Sono una creatura’ acknowledges the weakness of the ‘creature’ man who suffers; but resolves to elevate himself to the role of a Dionysian creator by becoming hard as the stone of the San Michele mountain.” (Suvini-Hand, 2000) The poem ends