Poetic Notebook 1974–1977

Eugenio Montale (Author), William Arrowsmith (Translator), Rosanna Warren (Editor, Boston University)

Poetic Notebook 1974–1977, one of the final volumes assembled by Eugenio Montale before his death, shows the last act of the twentieth-century master to be one of splendid negation.

Poetic Notebook 1974–1977 evokes a magnificent savagery, an attack on the poet himself and on the nihilistic squalor that he observes around him. An old man, Montale remembers his youth and recalls the dead. At times he seems to wonder if he himself is dead. And so his is a grim majesty, a new kind of poetry that faces the void: “She’s lied too often, now let darkness, / void, nothingness fall on her page. / Rely on this, my scribbling friend: / Trust the darkness when the light lies.”

Book Details

Paperback
December 2012
ISBN 978-0-393-34418-9
5.5 × 8.2 in / 192 pages
Sales Territory: USA and Dependencies, Philippines and Canada.

Endorsements & Reviews

“Thirty years after Montale’s death, his poetry is still vividly alive. . . . As we read through this incredibly rich poetic itinerary that traverses the heart of the twentieth century’s devastations and yearnings, we understand once more why Montale is known as one of modernity’s greatest poets.” — Rebecca West