Eugenio Montale, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1975, is regarded as one of the dominant voices of modernism, not only within the context of Italian letters but also internationally. His poetry, from the first publications in the 1920s to his complete works (L'Opera in versi) that appeared in 1981, is a touchstone for all those who seek to understand the potential and achievement of twentieth-century verse. He is one of the strongest voices of Italian poetry; however, his work is characterized by understatement, existential and philosophical diffidence, and a quiet dedication to his craft rather than a declaration of art's hegemony and an assertion of unassailable truths.

The power of Montale's verse lies, somewhat paradoxically, in its continual declaration of the powerlessness of either art or the human race ever to know itself fully. He believed, nonetheless, in the necessity of seeking knowledge, as well as the...