Selected Poems

After a youth filled with more than a normal share of personal sorrows, Pascoli, who was born in Romagna and educated at Bologna, went on to become a classical scholar of the first order, eventually succeeding to the chair held by Giosue Carducci at the University of Bologna. He has been belatedly recognized as Italy's seminal modernist. His best poetry is the Myricae (1891) and the Songs of Castelvecchio (1903). His Latin poetry won the leading prizes in Europe, and his studies of Italian authors, especially Leopardi and Dante, help to illuminate his own poetics.