[Ungaretti's] sense of guilt, of corruption in the nature of man—… man who, without the help of God's grace, cannot hope to redeem himself, which is at the centre of Jansenist doctrine [—is] to be found explicitly stated on more than one occasion in the critical writings of the poet….

This sense of guilt is to be seen in the consciousness of the fleetingness of time, in the transiency of human existence. (p. 61)

[Jansenist doctrine] is a point of departure from which [Ungaretti] will move out in search of an order and permanence on a spiritual level which will find correspondence in a search for order and permanence on an artistic level in the poetic form. The aim of the poet will be to achieve in his poetry that state of grace which, when achieved, will remove the sense of guilt in him and restore him to his...