SOURCE: Jones, Frederic Joseph. “Personal Aesthetics and Cultural Perspectives.” In Giuseppe Ungaretti: Poet and Critic, pp. 23-59. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1977.

In the following essay, Jones details the aesthetics of Ungaretti's poetry through multiple brief examinations, as well as considering Ungaretti in relation to other major poets.

Any attempt to examine Ungaretti's aesthetics is bound to pose a large number of problems, partly because of the complexity of his lyrical vision and partly because his poetic manner is overlaid by an equally complex network of borrowed literary features drawn mainly from Petrarchan sources. It will not be possible to deal with all these difficulties in the space available at present, except perhaps in the broadest outlines; but by adopting a cumulative technique we hope to add more flesh and connective tissue later, when we come to an analysis of his actual poetic texts. Since Ungaretti's critical views, moreover...