Abstract

This paper aims to analyse the poetic function of the travel theme in the Lucio Piccolo’s poetry and the multiple values of the landscape in his poetic representation. The work will focus on Guida per salire al monte, the first poem of Plumelia (L. Piccolo, Plumelia, All’insegna del pesce d’oro, Milan 1967). In this poem, through detailed descriptions and with a narrative rhythm, Piccolo represents the scenery of his memory. According to the modalities of a ‘travel guide’, the poet shows the stages of a real journey but, at the same time, also the phases of a ‘soul journey’. The places of this poetic itinerary - found also in other poems as La Torre (L. Piccolo, in La seta e altre poesie inedite e sparse, All’insegna del pesce d’oro, Milano 1984) - keep ancestral secrets and mysterious figures such as, for example, the “hermitµ that “offre nuove possibilità al novellare onirico del poeta.µ (N. Tedesco, Lucio Piccolo, Pungitopo, Marina di Patti 1986). This paper will also focus on the genesis of the poetic text. It aims to show how the multiple revisions of Guida per salire al monte can be important to understand the deeper meaning of the poem and its poetic paths.