Salvatore Quasimodo
Salvatore Quasimodo (1901–1968) was an Italian poet and translator whose lyrical poetry earned the 1959 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Hermeticism (Italian poetry): A twentieth-century Italian poetic movement marked by compressed language, elusive imagery, and private meaning. Quasimodo’s early poetry is a leading example of this movement’s concentrated, allusive style.
Lirici greci: Quasimodo’s 1940 collection of Italian translations of ancient Greek lyric poetry. This influential volume made his work as a translator central to his literary reputation.
Modica: A town in southeastern Sicily, Italy, known for its historic architecture. Quasimodo was born there in 1901.
Eugenio Montale: An Italian poet awarded the 1975 Nobel Prize in Literature, known for modernist poetry marked by skepticism and difficulty. Montale was a contemporary Nobel laureate whose poetic manner differed from Quasimodo’s lyrical voice.
World War II: A global war fought from 1939 to 1945 between the Allied and Axis powers. The war and its aftermath reshaped the subject and public address of Quasimodo’s poetry.
Ermetismo: The Italian name for Hermeticism, a literary movement associated with difficult, highly condensed poetry. The term often names the movement with which Quasimodo’s early work is grouped.
Ed è subito sera: A 1942 poetry collection by Salvatore Quasimodo, titled after one of his best-known poems. The collection gathers poems from his early, concentrated lyric period.
Ragusa: A city in southeastern Sicily, Italy, and the capital of the province of Ragusa. Quasimodo spent part of his childhood in this region after his father’s railway work took the family there.
Giuseppe Ungaretti: An Italian modernist poet whose concise verse was shaped by war and personal experience. Ungaretti and Quasimodo are central figures in twentieth-century Italian lyric poetry.
Italian Resistance: The armed and political movement opposing Nazi occupation and Fascist rule in Italy during World War II. Quasimodo’s postwar poetry engaged with violence, oppression, and the moral costs of war.