Italian poetry is a category of Italian literature. Italian poetry has its origins in the thirteenth century and has heavily influenced the poetic traditions of many European languages, including that of English.

Features

* Italian prosody is accentual and syllabic, much like English. However, in Italian all syllables are perceived as having the same length, while in English that role is played by feet. The most common metrical line is the hendecasyllable, which is very similar to English

iambic pentameter Iambic pentameter ( ) is a type of metric line used in traditional English poetry and verse drama. The term describes the rhythm, or meter, established by the words in each line. Meter is measured in small groups of syllables called feet. "Iambi ...

. Shorter lines like the ''settenario'' are used as well. * The earliest Italian poetry is rhymed. Rhymed forms of Italian poetry include the

sonnet A sonnet is a fixed poetic form with a structure traditionally consisting of fourteen lines adhering to a set Rhyme scheme, rhyming scheme. The term derives from the Italian word ''sonetto'' (, from the Latin word ''sonus'', ). Originating in ...

(''sonnetto''), terza rima, ottava rima, the

canzone Literally 'song' in Italian, a canzone (; : ''canzoni''; cognate with English ''to chant'') is an Italian or Provençal song or ballad. It is also used to describe a type of lyric which resembles a madrigal. Sometimes a composition which ...

and the

ballata The ''ballata'' (plural: ''ballate'') is an Italian poetic form, poetic and musical form in use from the late 13th to the 15th century. It has the musical form AbbaA, with the first and last stanzas having the same texts. It is thus most similar ...

. Beginning in the sixteenth century, unrhymed hendecasyllabic verse, known as ''verso sciolto'', became a popular alternative (compare

blank verse Blank verse is poetry written with regular metre (poetry), metrical but rhyme, unrhymed lines, usually in iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th cen ...

in English). * Feminine rhymes are generally preferred over masculine rhymes. * Apocopic forms (''uom'' for ''uomo'', ''amor'' for ''amore'') and contractions (''spirto'' for ''spirito'') are common. Expanded forms of words which have become contracted in ordinary use (''cittade'' for ''città'', ''virtute'' for ''virtù'') are also frequently encountered, particularly for the sake of ending lines with feminine rhymes. * Diaeresis may be used to break up

diphthongs A diphthong ( ), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of ...

and to make semivowels into full vowels. For instance, the trisyllabic word ''sapienza'' can be turned into the tetrasyllabic ''sapïenza''. The rules governing when diaeresis is permissible are complex, and it occurs more commonly with learnèd vocabulary than with colloquialisms. As with other European languages, Italian poets have become increasingly open to experimentation in recent centuries and free verse (''verso libero'') is written by many Italian poets.

Important Italian poets

* Giacomo da Lentini: a 13th-century poet who is believed to have invented the

. *

Guido Cavalcanti Guido Cavalcanti (between 1250 and 1259 – August 1300) was an Italians, Italian poet. He was also a friend of and intellectual influence on Dante Alighieri. Historical background Cavalcanti was born in Florence at a time when the comune was b ...

(c.1255 - 1300) Tuscan poet, and a key figure in the Dolce Stil Novo movement. *

Dante Alighieri Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

(1265 - 1321) wrote '' Divina Commedia'', one of the pinnacles of

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

literature. * Francesco Petrarca (1304 - 1374) famous for developing the

Petrarchan sonnet The Petrarchan sonnet, also known as the Italian sonnet, is a sonnet named after the Italian poet Francesco Petrarca, although it was not developed by Petrarch himself, but rather by a string of Renaissance poets.Spiller, Michael R. G. The Devel ...

in a collection of 366 poems called ''Canzoniere.'' * Guido Guinizelli (1230 — 1275) moved from courtly loved to mystical and spiritual philosophical spirituality * Matteo Maria Boiardo (1441 – 1494) wrote the

epic poem In poetry, an epic is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. With regard to ...

Orlando innamorato ''Orlando Innamorato'' (; known in English language, English as "''Orlando in Love''"; in Italian language, Italian titled "''Orlando innamorato''" as the "I" is never capitalized) is an epic poem written by the Italian Renaissance author Matte ...

'' * Ludovico Ariosto (1474 – 1533) wrote the epic poem '' Orlando furioso'' (1516). * Giovanni di Bernardo Rucellai (1474 – 1525) wrote ''Le Api'', a pioneering work in ''versi sciolti'' *

Torquato Tasso Torquato Tasso ( , also , ; 11 March 154425 April 1595) was an Italian poet of the 16th century, known for his 1591 poem ''Gerusalemme liberata'' (Jerusalem Delivered), in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between ...

(1544 – 1595) wrote the epic '' La Gerusalemme liberata'' (1580) in which he describes imaginary combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the

First Crusade The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the Middle Ages. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Muslim conquest ...

. * Ugo Foscolo (1778 - 1827): best known for his poem "Dei Sepolcri". * Giacomo Leopardi (1798 – 1837): highly valued for his ''Canti'' and ''Operette morali'', author of ''L'infinito'', one of the most famous poems of Italian literary history. * Giosuè Carducci (1835 - 1907) won the

Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...

in 1906. * Giovanni Pascoli (1855 - 1912) symbolist poet, thirteen times winner of the "Certamen poeticum Hoeufftianum". * Gabriele D'Annunzio (1863 - 1938) poet and novelist of the

Decadent Movement The Decadent movement (from the French language, French ''décadence'', ) was a late 19th-century Art movement, artistic and literary movement, literary movement, centered in Western Europe, that followed an aesthetic ideology of excess and artif ...

. * Guido Gozzano (1883-1916) poet of the Crepuscolari Movement, best known for his collection "I colloqui" (1911). *

Umberto Saba Umberto Saba (9 March 1883 – 25 August 1957) was an Italian poet and novelist, born Umberto Poli in the cosmopolitan Mediterranean port of Trieste when it was the fourth largest city of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Poli assumed the pen name "S ...

(1883 - 1957) * Trilussa (1871 - 1950) * Giuseppe Ungaretti (1888 - 1970) * Eugenio Montale (1896 – 1981) won the

in 1975. * Salvatore Quasimodo (1901 – 1968) won the

in 1959. * Cesare Pavese (1908 – 1950) * Leonardo Sinisgalli (1908 – 1981) * Alfonso Gatto (1909 – 1976) * Antonia Pozzi (1912 - 1938) * Mario Luzi (1914 – 2005) *

Pier Paolo Pasolini Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, film director, writer, actor and playwright. He is considered one of the defining public intellectuals in 20th-century Italian history, influential both as an artist ...

(1922 - 1975): better known as a filmmaker, he was also an accomplished poet. * Alda Merini (1931 - 2009)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Italian Poetry Italian literature Poetry by country

Features

Important Italian poets

See also

References