Attilio Bertolucci (father of the filmmakers Bernardo and Giuseppe Bertolucci) holds a place apart in the development of twentieth-century Italian poetry. Although he has remained isolated by nature and by choice from any literary movement, Attilio Bertolucci has been an important presence in Italy as a poet and promoter of cultural awareness. His poetry is also significant, as it represented for many years an alternative to the once prevalent hermetic tradition. Unlike the hermetic poets, Bertolucci is drawn to the concrete elements of reality and chooses to render them in a natural and ordinary manner. This direction has resulted in an unusual style of expression. By his own admission Bertolucci discovered at an early age a greater literary affinity with other European cultures than with his own. Primarily in recent Anglo-Saxon and French literary traditions he found voices most congenial to his particular interests. Yet Bertolucci's essential inspiration...