SOURCE: Perella, Nicolas J. “Giosuè Carducci.” In Midday in Italian Literature, pp. 98-107. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1979.

In the following essay, Perella explores Carducci's recurring use of midday in his poetry.

For the most part we are far from such negative noontide violence in the writings of Giosue Carducci, where it is rather the splendor and glory of the midday sun that illuminate more than one scene. In considering the role of midday in Carducci, we may begin with the idyllic and nostalgic evocation of “Idillio maremmano” (“Idyll of the Maremma”). Here, at the center of the world-weary poet's vision of a simple and healthy life in communion with nature, which might have been his, is the figure of a young woman who strides “alta e ridente” along the furrows of fields of wheat. Carducci's “bionda Maria” may remind us somewhat of Zanella's Ruth at midday...