Analysis of the text Alla luna by Giacomo Leopardi: structure, meaning, vocabulary, rhetorical figures. Links to further information.In Alla luna, Giacomo Leopardi finds himself in a state of sweet melancholy that makes nature his confidant. He contemplates the moon shining over a forest, illuminating it, and recalls the past year: on the same day, with eyes filled with tears, at the same hour he had seen the same moon.
His life continues to be unhappy, but the memory appears sweet, despite his sadness and therefore the contemplation of the landscape allows the poet to reflect on his destiny, on his youth, on hope and pain, on the passing of time.
To the moon: analysis
Many terms in Leopardi’s poetics refer to vague images and it is pleasant to see objects that are not clearly distinguishable due to natural or artificial impediments because in doing so one can imagine the infinite and this is extremely pleasant, also because the imagination does not put you in contact with the “ugly” reality of the present, which causes every illusion to vanish to leave more space for the truth.
In this poem there are many situations and themes dear to Leopardi such as gazing at the moon which allows the poet to remember past moments and therefore also that of memory is a recurring motif in the poetics of this author, since the action of contemplation, imagination and memory is also present in A Silvia , where the poet recalls the figure of the girl, whose dreams were shattered by her sudden death.
The memory of youth (in contrast with adulthood) and moments of the past (contrast with the present time, as we can see in verse nine “it was my life; and it is, nor does it change style”) are presented, recalled by the sight of the star with terms that refer to the objective time passed and the subjective time of memory such as “I remember”, “now the year is turning”, “youthful time”, “long…and short…”, “memory”, “past things”.
We note then that space is imbued with time experienced by the individual, in fact poetry is not in things, but in the individual: things offer the occasion, but it is interiority that gives them meaning.
One of the fundamental themes is the constant unhappiness in the poet’s existence, but even if one has a painful object, the memory is still sweet: it in fact presupposes a sentimental attribution, in which one distances oneself from the bitterness of immediate reality.
The vocabulary used by the author
The human soul aspires to an absolute pleasure, the infinite , which can only be found in the imagination because it produces hopes and illusions, but the truth, reality, limits this imaginative process and makes us understand that we can only perceive a limited and not entirely satisfying pleasure and therefore the final displeasure can also culminate with death.
In the first five lines the precise lunar scenario is evoked , underlined by the demonstrative adjectives in “this hill” and in “that forest”; in the following lines up to the tenth an image of the moon is represented, blurred and slightly obscured by the poet’s plan, but this provokes a pleasant sensation in the individual’s soul.
t is pleasant to notice objects that are not clearly visible because of natural or artificial impediments, a dim light or reflections that reach us imperfect and incomplete, or many sounds mixed together and not distinguishable, but it is equally pleasant to see a deserted expanse with only the presence of the sun, or the variety of a crowd, of ants, what is confused, irregular and disordered because the vastness of the sensation and the slight obscuration of the vision of objects spreads a sense of pleasure in the soul of the individual because in this way he wants to know the infinite.
Imagination can produce this emotion but it will always be the achievement of a limited and unsatisfying result.
Even the sounds caused by the wind or thunder are pleasant because they are invisible and we do not know where they come from and this causes vagueness and uncertainty; even the darkness does not let us determine the vastness of the sound and these images in poetry are beautiful because they leave room for the imagination.
It is an idyll in blank hendecasyllables, in line nine you can notice a synalepha (“life; and”) and some enjambements throughout the poem such as: “your face”, “my life”, “the memory”, “of my pain”, “the hope”, “the remembering”.
The first part of the poem is in the past, while the second part is in the present and this idyll can be seen in two important sequences, each presenting a specific moment: a descriptive one, in which we start from the sensitive experience, and a reflective one, in which the poet’s interiority appears.
In the initial five verses, the contrast between a finite space (Mount Tabor and the forest) and an infinite one (the moon) appears; in the following verses the theme of memory, of things past and of youthful age dominates and all this provokes a pleasant sensation.
