City walls, arches and pillars, columns, towers and sculptures, but I do not see the glory, laurel and steel that my ancient ancestors bore! Now you are defenseless, your breasts and your forehead are bare. So many bruises, so much blood! Peerless beauty, covered with bruises, I saw you like this! I beg God, I beg the world to tell me, tell me, who made you look like this? Your hands are tied with chains, your hair is disheveled, without a veil, you are alone and have no one to comfort you, you sit on the ground and put your face Crying in your knees. Cry, my Italy, you have every reason to cry. But whether fate favors you or fails you, you were born to win. Comments Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837) is the main representative of the Italian Romantic movement and the greatest Italian poet after the Renaissance. During his lifetime, Italy was occupied by Austria and other countries; although Napoleon once brought an air of bourgeois revolution to Italy, Austria's high-pressure rule then returned. At a time when the nation was suffering, Leopardi, as a patriotic poet, wrote many political lyrics and political satires. "To Italy" is a representative work of Leopardi's political lyric poetry. It was written in 1818 when the author was 20 years old. This poem is divided into seven sections. The content of this poem is to remember the glorious history of the ancient motherland, mourn the unfortunate sufferings of modern Italy, and denounce the cowardice and incompetence of the Italians for their inability to fight to liberate the motherland. This verse makes a strong contrast between the glorious ruins of ancient Rome and the decline of modern Italy. The "divine column" mentioned in it is an ashlar column with the head of the god carved on the top, and the laurel is the sacred tree of Apollo, a symbol of glory and glory. A symbol of literary talent. The poet uses the image of a peerless beauty with disheveled hair, bruises all over her body, and a chain to describe today's Italy, revealing the poet's endless pain and anger. But at the same time, the poet still has strong confidence in the rejuvenation of his motherland, believing that Italy will not let fate dictate it, but will eventually rise up to take control of its own destiny.
"To Italy" is Leopardi's most passionate and tragic poem, which ignited the flames of the Italian national liberation movement