SOURCE: "The Particular Poetic World of Eugenio Montale," in Italian Quarterly, Vol. 3, No. 10, Summer, 1959, pp. 42-55.

In the following essay, Simonelli holds that the foundation of Montale's poetics was established in Cuttlefish Bones and developed in later works.

To talk about Montale's poetics is above all to talk about his Ossi di seppia (1925). His later collections of poems—Occasioni (1939), Bufera (1956)—do not modify the position assumed and lived by Montale from his very early poetic experiences: "Meriggiare pallido…" (Ossi di seppia), dated 1916. In the collections following the Ossi the poet merely continues to investigate his problem more profoundly and to develop his particular poetic language further. It is in his particular poetic language rather than in his subjects that Montale attempts modification. He adopts a more extensive and more narrative style, which remains open to exterior happenings. But in speaking of such a modification, one must proceed with...