Montale's Echoic Poetic Voice(s)

Abstract

'Montale's echoic poetic voice(s)' analyses the nature of the speaking voice(s) and studies its possible effects within some poetic texts by Eugenio Montale, offering a reflection on whether the model can be extended more widely to the whole poetic body. This is pursued by analysing the poet's texts, not only from a syntactical and lexical point of view, but also by examining the dynamics of the Montalean voice and understanding how these dynamics function linguistically within each poem in order to observe whether the voice dynamics create a system within which the lyrical I has been disembodied ('scarnificato'). Analysis will start from some considerations on poems from both seasons of production, i.e. the so called 'first' and 'second Montale', in order to point out the dynamics of the Montalean poetic voice(s) of the second season, from Satura (1970) onwards, and compare them to those of the supposed 'single voice' in the poetry from Ossi di seppia (1925) through to La bufera e altro (1956).