The Poems of Giacomo Leopardi

Surname 1 The Poems of Giacomo Leopardi Giacomo Leopardi was one of the greatest poets in the 19th century. Born in Italy, he was also a philosopher and essayist of no mean repute. Leopardi’s contribution to the world of literature is indelible, for his works are still relevant in the modern world. The poems he writes covered a wide range of thematic issues that impact society. He was passionate about his poetry works, which he used as a medium for communicating his views of issues around and about his life. Leopardi’s poems such as “the dream,” “Love and Death," "to the moon," The Infinite,” “first love,” “The Setting of The Moon,” and “The Ginestra” cover themes of love, death, and nature.

Buy this excellently written paper or order a fresh one from ace-myhomework.com

Surname 2

Love Leopardi talks about love in various ways that capture the very nature and aspects of love. In the poem ‘First Love,' the narrator talks about his first love, giving a detailed account of how it was such an emotional love. He starts, "Ah, well can I the day recall, when first," which means that he is recollecting his past experiences in a love relationship (Leopardi 48). 'First love' is crucial in defining a person's view of sexual relationships. Leopard did find a lover that had all the qualities he loved and liked, but he lost her, a development that had a profound effect on his life. In this poem, he talks about his teenage love escapades, painting a picture of how deeply affected he was by his first love affair. Love in a youthful age is dominated by passions that can drive one crazy but also soothe the heart. The strong attachment that is triggered by love makes life interesting, as put forward in the poem. Sleepless nights, distractions from many things, some important and some unimportant, is achieved by love. Leonardi says, "Ah, Love, how badly hast thou governed me!" indicating how strong love is to the extent that it took control of him (Leopardi 48). A person who is deeply in love can think and break love because of the strong emotional attachment that comes with being in love.

Moreover, love can bring sorrows if one loses the loved one or a relationship with the loved one comes to an end. The poem ‘first love’ speaks of a person who is suffering from great memories of the love he experienced. His life is heavily impacted by losing the love he so cherished. Leopardi says, "Nothing on earth can interest me more!" (Leopardi 48). It is usual for a heartbroken person to make such a statement to the effect that what is lost was so dear and irreplaceable. Love invokes strong and passionate bonds that make one blind to the reality that one day life can change, and a relationship comes to an end. It is psychologically disturbing for

Surname 3 one to accept the loss of a loved person, which Leopardi vividly captures in the poem by expressing his feelings after his girlfriend, had died (Leopardi 48). It is evident that he is struggling to control his emotions, but he cannot avoid the pain of losing his lover. He describes how his heart throbs as he lies in bed panting. Subsequently, he emphasizes how tough it is to survive the loss of a person that one adore and love to the bottom of his heart.

Love creates indelible memories that play in the mind of the victim after the person he or she loved has left. For Leonardi, it is these memories that inform the poem ‘first love’, in which he pours out his feelings about his then relationship. He describes the girl in question as innocent during the first time they met. He quips ‘I saw but her, whose artless innocence,” meaning that he found her unspoiled. She was natural, appealing, and beautiful (Leopardi 48). These are aspects a person is likely to find in a person he falls in love with, especially if they are passions involved. A person in love does not see defects in his lover but sees everything as perfect and natural. Leopardi reminds the audience of this as he talks about his lover.

Love leaves behind memories that cannot only live for ages but also that attach the person left behind to the departed. Leonardi asserts this in the line 'That flame still lives, and that affection pure," in which he stresses the living legacy of his love for her lover, who probably died (Leopardi 49). He reminiscences the past and feels sorrow that he will no longer enjoy those best moments they had together. She is forever gone, turning what used to be loved into the torture of his heart and feelings. From his feeling, it is clear that strong love for someone can result in psychological torture when the person leaves (Leopardi 49). It hurts mots, and sometimes it may take forever to overcome if one does not find out something that can distract the feeling of nostalgia about the departed.

Surname 4 Love conquers the human spirit and rules the spirit and body, making the man weak.

Leopardi rues losing her lover, who he cherished so much because he was strongly in love with her. His heart was taken captive by her love, which leaves memories of regrets in his life because he will no longer have her by him. He laments, "And that regret, that I could not enjoy" (Leopardi 49). The enjoyment one derives from a love affair is a matter of spirit and body. When the two agree, find love in a person, the bond is strong.

Death Leopardi's poems have also covered the theme of death extensively, communicating the feelings and impact of death in society. Death brings bout grief and sorrow to families, friends, and relatives. In the poem 'The Dream,' Leopardi says, 'But to the young, Death comes, disconsolate,' to imply death hits hard the young people (Leopardi 60). When a parent or lover of a person dies, she leaves behind are strong feelings of sadness. Young people tend to be hard-hit by death than adults. In the poem, Leonardi is grieving the loss of a loved one. She was so dear to him that her departure leaves him more dejected. Grief accompanies deaths, which is well painted in Leopardi's poems. At the same time, no society has ever defeated death, which makes it part of human life. When people die, their families, friends, and relatives mourn them according to the level of attachment they had with the dead. The closer the relationship, the severe the pain. Leopardi, through the poem, demonstrates how humans feel when they lose those dear to them in life.

Death of loved ones can cause stress, which is sometimes torturous. In 'The Dream,' Leonardi expresses depression over the loss of his loved one. He writes, 'What grief oppressed me, as these words I heard!' (Leopardi 60). Her death left him heart-stricken, with a bitter feeling of loss that he did not anticipate. Death always comes unexpectedly. His lover died in her youth

Surname 5 when she should be starting to enjoy her life. In this case, when they had become lovers and were set for a long-term relationship. In this dream, the author reveals how death robs people their loved ones and leaves them in a sorrowful state full of torture.

Moreover, from Leonardi's poem "the dream,' the death of the loved ones comes with disbelief, which explains the deep sorrow that accompanies it. Leopardi does not believe that a person he so cherished is dead. He says, "To me, she seemed not dead, but sad….” (Leopardi 60). Death is often hard to accept, even when, in reality, the dead cannot be resurrected. The memories about the good past and realization that they won't be relived again pains those left behind. It is on this premise that one, who was so close and in love with the dead, rejects to accept the reality. Leopardi's view that she is not dead, but only sad, serves to remind the audience how painful death is that it is hard for people to accept it when it strikes those they love. Although it was a dream, it illustrates the disbelief that hit humans when death hits one of their loved ones. Death is not easy to accept; it is dreaded and disliked by the living.

Death is incomprehensible to human because it comes without announcing its arrival and takes out those that are loved. The younger die even without enjoying life when they are most needed. Leopardi invokes the emotions when he talks of the young lady's death; she left so soon when she was about to start enjoying life. It hurts him that she is gone, and he cannot understand how he will live without her. Leopardi says that he feels that she is not dead, assuming that she might be just sleeping. In essence, it is challenging to understand death and accept it in human life. Death is a heartless reaper, who is unmanageable and strikes anytime and without considering the lives of those that are attached to a person (Leopardi 60). Consequently, death is a mystery that human beings cannot solve.

Nature

Surname 6 The theme of nature is featured in many of Leopardi’s poems, in which he expresses his love and delight in the natural world. In the poem ‘The Ginestra,’ he decries the destruction of the natural environment by lamenting about the state of the flower in the wilderness. Human progress is shown to have impacted negatively on nature, leading to desertification as trees were cut down to pave the way for human settlement and infrastructural development (Leopardi 153).

In the poem 'The Evening of The Holiday,' Leonardi presents the good value of nature by describing the environment. He says, "The moon shines soft, and from afar reveals Each mountain-peak serene" (Leopardi 57). The sentence reveals his appreciation of nature’s beauty.

He loves the calmness of the night as the moon shines to reveal mountains. The softness of the moon means it light that is not hot, does not hurt. The mountains, just like the moon, are nature’s creations that ornament the earth.

Nature pacifies the heart and gives a feeling of bliss to those on holiday, lovers, and any other person who may want to enjoy it. Leonardi writes, 'This was a holiday; its pleasures o'er,’ implying the memorable day when he was out on holiday with his lover (Leopardi 59). Nature gave them a serene environment through which their love was amplified. Tourists and lovers enjoy the beauty of nature as part of building their memorable moments. In the poem ‘To the Moon,’ Leopardi says ‘O lovely moon, how well do I recall The time, —'tis just a year—when up this hill’ (Leopardi 59). The statement captures his recollections of the past trip to the hill. He remembers the moonlight and how it was joyful to enjoy nature's beauty. Nature soothes the dejected souls by its serenity. In the people, Leopardi finds solace in the natural environment, to lull his sorrowful feelings about the past. Nature is quite enthralling to the heart, which offers a kind of therapy to persons who may be having some challenges in life. It feels good to go out in a lonely place, hills, mountains, or even just an open space and meditate about life.

Surname 7 Nature is boundless and offers enough space for all to live and enjoy. From the moon, sun, mountain, valleys, and the general air, it is plenteousness of nature. In the poem ‘the setting of the moon,’ Leopardi talks about a lonely night outside, where the moon is light, and he can see hedges, hills, villages, and the horizon behinds the Alp (Leopardi 152). This is followed by darkness as the moon descends. In this poem, Leopardi uses nature to describe how the desolate night is as he rues his youthful years. He compares the arrival of darkness to his youthful days.

At least nature does not make night permanent; at dawn, it gives way for sunlight, but for the narrator, once the youth is gone, there is no dawn. It is a life full of darkness (Leopardi 152).

Leonardi also says, 'And to that Nature old, omnipotent," implying that nature is all-powerful and old. Nature is not a new invention but has been here since time immemorial; it is as old as humankind. In essence, nature is self-renewing and sustainable, unlike human life that cannot be renewed.

In the poem 'The Infinite,' Leopardi paints a picture of how nature is enjoyable by giving a vivid description of its boundless forces. He talks about sitting on a remote horizon as he gazed into the air and absorbed his thought. He says, "And as I listen to the wind, that through these trees is murmuring, its plaintive voice" (Leopardi 56). Again, Leopardi reminds how nature can rhyme with one’s mood to give one a sense of assurance at times of trouble. The trees’ voice left him with nostalgia. The personification of trees is also drawn through their murmuring, which the author listened to as he got entangled in deep thoughts about his life. Nature offers a good environment for one to mediate about life because it is peaceful. The lonely hill was valued by Leopardi when he was in love and young. He would visit to enjoy its serenity. He now laments that those good times are gone.

Surname 8 Moreover, Leopardi goes ahead to say that what is sweet to him is a shipwreck on the sea to capture nature in his poem. The sea is a natural water body, which gives breezes and fresh air that is enjoyable. For Leopardi, the sea offers a good view, more so if it has a shipwreck. People enjoy the natural environment because it is always not only beautiful to the eyes but also the mind. It is this beauty that makes it attractive to those holidays or on a picnic. The journey to a hill and the sea reveals the narrator's love for nature. It is during nature walks that he found the true meaning of peace and sometimes got a chance to ponder about the past events that are remarkable in his life.

In conclusion, Leopardi's poems conversed about a wide range of issues that impacted his life and the society at large. Death, love, and nature are some of the themes in his poems. The coverage of love in his poems is mainly centered on his love life, expressing his feeling for those he dearly loved. Death is in Leonardi's poems also revolve around his life and those he cherished but died. He expresses sorrow and pain in losing the loved ones, which paints a picture of his human part and death as painful and hard to accept the event. The poems by Leopardi also deal with nature through expressions of the natural environment and how the author explored it at times of happiness and sorrow.

Surname 9 Work Cited Leopardi, Giacomo. "The Project Gutenberg Ebook Of the Poems of Giacomo Leopardi, Translated By Frederick Townsend." Gutenberg.Org, 2006, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/19315/19315-h/19315-h.htm#page149.