This is the first of seven poems grouped under the heading Sogni di terre lontane (Dreams of Distant Places), which are part of d’Annunzio’s poetic masterpiece Alcyone (Halcyon). If the entire work is a passionate celebration of the summer and of the communion of the human soul with nature, the seven poems of this series represent a moment of melancholy when the summer is close to an end, its light and colors are diluted, and the poet abandons himself to a nostalgic feeling in the remembrance of past days and faraway places.

As well as a common theme, the poems also share elaborate formal characteristics, with hendecasyllabic (11-syllable) stanzas, a similar rhyme scheme, a preference for parataxis (series without conjunctions), and realistic descriptions. I pastori is constituted of four stanzas of five hendecasyllables: in each stanza two lines rhyme with each other, two are free, and one rhymes with the first line of the following stanza, while the stanza’s closing line rhymes with the last line of the last stanza.

In I pastori d’Annunzio evokes the atmosphere of his native land, Italy’s Abruzzi, in September, when the shepherds migrate with their flocks from the Apennines to the plains of the Adriatic coast. With vibrant emotion the poet re-creates the transhumance and describes the figures of the shepherds, embodying an old and simple world and the poet’s nostalgia for his roots. When autumn approaches it is time to abandon the mountain folds and highland pastures and to winter on the green plains near the Adriatic.

Before leaving, the shepherds drink long from the alpine springs “so that the taste of native water may / remain in exiled hearts and offer comfort.” Then with their hazel staffs they walk along the paths that have been used for centuries by their forefathers. The image of the “silent grassy river” conveys the gentle movement of men and flocks toward the sea. But then the silence is broken by the joyous voice of the first shepherd who catches sight of the coast.

Finally, we see the shepherds walking on the shore, and we witness with the poet the atmosphere of immense peace, with the sun shining on the sheeps’ coats and making them as light as the sand, with the sweet sounds of the water. A solitary verse closing the poem expresses the longing of the exiled poet for his native land: “And why, I ask, am I not with my shepherds?”

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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