Although thefall Although the season started in September, it is only in October that we feel the spirit of the season. We feel how the climate is changing, how the colors of nature are changing, how the days are getting shorter… and we feel surrounded by a warm atmosphere that smells of fireplaces and hot tea.
To welcome the symbolic month of autumn, let us discover together “October“, a beautiful poem in which Attilio Bertolucci creates a musical fresco that evokes warmth and sweet melancholy.
Sirio, a sui generis collection
“October” is part of Sirio, a collection of poems by Attilio Bertolucci, who was still eighteen years old at the time. The year is 1929 and the poetic atmosphere in Italy is that of hermetism: after the publication of Squid bonesThe trend is to create a new poetic language in which sound, symbol and signifier come into close contact with the world and create new and meaningful meanings.
Bertolucci distances himself completely from this idea with his verses. For the young author, language and poetry cannot live far away from the world, in a different reality that never fully merges with everyday life. Poetry must be imbued with reality, lyricism and emotion.
This is clearly evident in “October,” a poem that stimulates the senses and evokes immediate images in the reader.
A fresco in verse
Images of a month appear before us, October, which represents a turning point between summer and autumn.
While the heat of summer still prevails in September, in October the climate changes, the wind increases, the trees begin to lose their leaves and the sun appears colder.
These are the elements that Bertolucci tells us about in his poetry: in the eight verses that make up “October” the signs of an impending season are traced.
First we see the yellowed tree. Then, as if watching a shot that becomes more and more detailed, we see the leaf fall and rest on a sidewalk damp from the rain.
From here, as we stand on the wet ground, we feel the warmth of the sun shining in the distance, a reminder of the beautiful season that is now behind us.
At the end of the autumn vision, the sense of hearing finally presents itself with a new silence that promises to be long and powerful.
“October” by Attilio Bertolucci
It protrudes from a garden wall
The yellow crown of a tree.Every now and then it drops a leaf
On the gray and wet sidewalk.Ecstasy, a white sun between the clouds
He appears warm and distant, like a saint.The day is quiet, the night will be quiet
Similar to a fish in water.
The poems of Attilio Bertolucci
There is a collection of poems that represents a real turning point in the author’s production of October. This is “Bedroom.” All previous compositions are now included in a single volume, published by Garzanti and also containing “Sirio”, the summary of which we present below:
“The first collection, “Sirio”, testifies to the birth of an unmistakable and different voice from the typical customs of the Italian 20th century: a voice full of joie de vivre and irony, of fantastic and natural colors.
But it is “Fires in November”, a sweet, whimsical and dreamy collection of pastels, drawings and inventions that, thanks to a memorable intervention by Montale, establishes itself on the Italian scene as one of the most authentic alternatives to the main course of our poetry.
“Letters from Home”, the eloquent fruit of early ripeness but with something already slightly autumnal, expresses a deep need to talk about life.
In the contemporary poem “The Indian Hut” the tension with narrative poetry finds its first, successful fulfillment. “In an uncertain time” collects reflections on voluntary exile in Rome and traces a path that leads to the thematic and stylistic novelty of “Winterreise”, one of the most dazzling texts of Italian poetry of the second half of the 20th century”.
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