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Halcyon

Gabriele D'Annunzio

Translated by J.G. Nichols

Cover Picture of Halcyon
10% off
Categories: 19th Century, 20th Century, Italian
Imprint: Fyfield Books
Publisher: Carcanet Press
Available as:
Paperback (264 pages)
(Pub. Apr 2003)
9781857546934
£12.99 £11.69
  • Description
  • Excerpt
  • Author
  • Contents
  • My words
    are as profound
    as roots
    in the ground,
    sometimes serene
    as the firmament
    as hot as the hot vein
    of the adolescent
        (from 'The Roots of Song')

    Gabriele d'Annunzio (1863-1938), the most influential and controversial Italian poet of the last hundred years, published his masterpiece Halcyon in 1903. It is a carefully organized sequence of eighty-eight lyrics which, to gain their full effect, must be read as a whole. Halcyon is a 'solar diary' of a summer spent in Tuscany, part of the time with the legendary Eleanora Duse. The poems evoke specific times and places; more importantly, they conjure up emotions, memories and myths associated with each place. Beginning in early summer, they move through the seasons, changing in verse-form and mood, always delighting in the sensuous qualities of language.

    J.G. Nicholls's translation makes the richness and subtlety of d'Annunzio's poetry accessible to the English-speaking reader, and his introduction illuminates the complex themes and structure of the work. He provides a full glossary of places and references.
    Table of Contents

    Introduction







    HALCYON



    The truce

    The youngster

    By the side of the Affrico on an evening in June after rain

    Evening at Fiesole

    The olive

    The ear of corn

    Works and days

    The bard without a lyre

    Beatitude

    Fvrit aestvs

    First dithyramb

    Peace

    The tenzon

    Mouth of the Arno

    Between two Arnos

    The rain in the pine wood

    The roots of song

    The name

    Before dawn

    The two eyes of a Pleiad

    The tributaries

    The camels

    Noon

    The mothers

    Calm

    The highest Alps

    Gombo

    Orphic anniversary

    Terra, vale!

    Second dithyramb

    The oleander

    Mouth of the Serchio

    The stag

    The hippocampus

    The wave

    The coronal of Glauco

    Mélitta-Sour grapes-Nico-Nicarete-To Nicarete-

    Gorgo-To Gorgo-The flautist-Baccha

    Stabat nvda Aestas

    Third dithyramb

    Versilia

    The death of the stag

    The asphodel

    Summer madrigals

    Supplication-The sands of Time-The footprint-At dawn-

    At midday-Towards evening-Circean charm-The wind writes-

    Sea-lanterns-In the slime-The Grecian grape

    August festival

    The many-headed song

    Triton

    Roman sarcophagus

    Ocean laurel

    The prisoner

    The Victory of Samothrace

    The rupestrian peplos

    The vulture of the Sun

    The wing on the sea

    Altivs egit iter

    Fourth dithyramb

    Sadness

    The Sea-Hours

    A goddess of the shore

    Undulna

    The Thessalian

    The goatskin

    The signs

    Dreams of distant places

    The shepherds-The baths-The flock and the herd-

    Lacus luturnae-The loggia-The pack-The carobs

    New moon

    Envoi

    Glossary

    Gabriele D'Annunzio
    Gabrielle D'Annunzio was a poet emphatically reveared in his native Italy during the Facsist years under Mussolini. Initially refered to by nationalists as  Il Vate ("the Poet") this ultimately escalated to Il Profeta ("the Prophet") after he lead sections of the Italian army to seemingly miraculous victories in World War I. ... read more
    J.G. Nichols
    ... read more
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