This is probably the most widely known of D’Annunzio’s poems and the one that is usually taken as most emblematic of his “panism,” the ability to experience the vibrant life of nature in one’s own body and soul.

The poem is included in Alcyone (Halcyon), where the best moments of D’Annunzio’s poetic craft and poetic sensibility are to be found. There, summer is protagonist, representing the full power of life, and the poet is wholly immersed in this life, merging with the natural elements and becoming all senses.

La pioggia nel pineto, comprising four long stanzas of 32 verses, describes a walk in the pinewood of Viareggio, in Tuscany, where the poet used to spend summers. He and his companion, Ermione, are surprised by rain as they walk through the woods.

When the first drops fall, the poet strains to listen and urges the woman to do the same. They hear no other sound than the rain, falling rhythmically, thin and slow at the beginning, then thick and heavy, tapping on the foliage in a variety of tones:

“And the pine / has a sound of its own, / and myrtle and juniper / others again…”

Then, accompanying the rain, other sounds produced by nature envelop the two lovers: first, the sound of the cicadas growing softer as the rain gets more intense; then the sound of the frog in the distance.

And they become one with the wood, no longer human creatures, but finally part of the “rough green vigour” entangling them.

The formal features of the poem beautifully serve the thematic purposes. The celebration of nature is rendered in a mimetic way by use of repetitions, onomatopoeic words, and a lexical choice based on phonic criteria, all of which make the poem highly musical.

The magical tone that attends the metamorphosis of the lovers merging with the landscape is conveyed through similes and simultaneity of sensations.

Beautiful images—for instance, “the heart in the breast like a peach / unspoilt by touch” and “the teeth in their gums / white as almonds before they are ripe”—render the transformation of the woman into an arboreous creature.

A poem of immense evocative power, this is probably the most refined example of early 20th-century Italian decadence.

Bibliography
D’Annunzio, Gabriele. Halcyon. Translated with an introduction by J. G. Nichols. New York: Routledge, 2003.

Categories: Italian Literature, Literature, World Literature

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