SOURCE: Levi, Moritz. “Silence and Solitude in the Poems of Leopardi.” Modern Language Notes 24, no. 6 (June 1909): 172-76.

In the following essay, Levi remarks on themes of solitude and silence as key elements in Leopardi's pessimistic poetic expression.

It has often been said that the greatness of a man does not depend upon the pleasures he enjoys but upon the sufferings he undergoes. Among Italians who prove the truth of this saying none stand forth more clearly than Dante and Leopardi. Both drained the cup of bitterness to the dregs. Dante's lofty patriotism and uncompromising uprightness of character brought upon him endless woe during his days on earth, and Leopardi's physical and mental sufferings doomed him to a brief life full of misery. And yet had Leopardi and Dante suffered less, the world would probably have been deprived of two of its greatest poets. While Dante sang the sorrows...