Abstract

This article, devoted to Zanzotto’s first collection of poems, Dietro il paesaggio (1951), starts with a critical discussion of the possible meanings of the title, which leads to a new interpretation of the meanings of the word ‘dietro’ (‘behind’) in dialect. This critical proposal makes it possible to revise the alleged antithesis between nature and history that many scholars have attributed to this work. It also suggests the adoption of a different perspective which is not focused on current events but is connected to the pantheistic view that Friedrich Hölderlin – at that time Zanzotto’s most influential poetic model – had learnt from Spinoza, an author who figures prominently in Zanzotto’s philosophical library.