LEOPARDITHE VILLAGE SATURDAY
- This is a preview of the essay.
To view the full text you must login!
LEOPARDI
THE VILLAGE SATURDAY
It's impossible to identify the sources of joy in this poem without being aware of its sadness too. For Leopardi, joy exists in the context of melancholy and despair because joy is a small little moment in this Universe of sorrow. Youth is that little small moment of joy in a life devoted to earn a living and remember who we were.
The most important source of joy is youth. Leopardi pictures from us a young girl adorned with fresh flowers, getting ready to celebrate the holiday. But is an old woman who remembers when she "adorned her body for the holidays / And, slenderly robust, / Would dance the night away." Those days are long gone, as is the sun that was with the young girl. Now "Returning shadows fall / At the whitening of the moon."
The second stanza shows us another source of joy: The hour of heart's renewal." In this time the villagers forget about their responsibilities, duties and work...