Salvatore QuasimodoAwards:
Nobel Prize in Literature-1959 Nobel Committee
in its citation stated that the prize was given for
"his lyrical poetry, which with
classical fire expresses the tragic experience of life in our own
times."
Born: 20/08/1901 in Modica, Italy
Died: 14/06/1968 in Naples, Italy of
Cerebral Hemorrhage.
Citizen: Italy
Language: Italian
Quasimodo was attracted to poetry at a very
early age. At the age of 16, he founded a journal, Nuovo giornale
letterario ( New Literary Journal) and published his first poems.
After graduating from the local
Technical College,Messina in 1919, he moved to Rome to study
engineering but abandoned the course midway because of his poor
economic condition. Instead, he joined a job as a technical
draughtsman to earn livelihood.
In 1929, he moved to Florence
where he met poet Eugenio Montale and Alessandro Bonsanti and was
influenced by *Hermetic movement and
published his first collection, Acque e terre (Water and Earth) in
1930. In 1931, he was transferred to Imperia and then in 1932 to
Genoa. In the same year, he published, Obor Sommerso, which
included all his lyrics from 1930 to 1932. In 1934, he moved to Milan
and devoted himself to fulltime writing. In 1945, he became a member
of Italian Communist Party.
In 1968, June while he was on a
lecture giving tour, he had cerebral hemorrhage and succumbed to the
same.
Quasimodo's literary career are divided into two distinct phases,
Hermetic period which lasted till Second World War and Post-Hermetic
period characterized by disgust and sense of absurdity of war . Both
the periods were seamlessly integrated in a poetic quest to understand
various stages of life and countdown to death.
* Hermeticism in
poetry is a form of obscure and difficult poetry, as of the Symbolist
school, wherein the language and imagery are subjective, and where the
suggestive power of the sound of words is as important as their
meaning
Notable Works:
Acque a terre
-- Water and Land(1930),Oboe
sommerse --Sunken
Oboe (1932),
Odore di Eucalyptus-
Scent of Eucalyptus
(1933) ,Erato
e Apolion -- (1936),
Poesie--
(1938),
Ed e Subito Sera--
And Suddenly it's Evening (1942),
Giorno
dopo giorno-
Day after Day
(1947)
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