Eugenio Montale Writing Styles in On the Threshold

This Study Guide consists of approximately 17 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of On the Threshold.

Eugenio Montale Writing Styles in On the Threshold

This Study Guide consists of approximately 17 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of On the Threshold.
This section contains 310 words
(approx. 1 page at 400 words per page)
Buy the On the Threshold Study Guide

One of the problems a translator faces is how to preserve in a new language as much of the form and structure of the original poem as possible. Often the task is virtually impossible, especially with the use of rhyme. In the original Italian, "On the Threshold" is consistently rhymed. In the first stanza, for example, at the end of line 1, pomario (orchard) rhymes both with morto (dead) at the end of line 3, and with reliquiario (reliquary) at the end of line 5. The other stanzas also have distinctive patterns of rhyme. But the rhymes cannot easily be translated into English, and the translator makes no attempt to do so. The result is that the English version reads like a poem written in free verse.

However, other aspects of the original poem are preserved, including meaning, line and stanza length, and punctuation. As in the original, the...

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This section contains 310 words
(approx. 1 page at 400 words per page)
Buy the On the Threshold Study Guide
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On the Threshold from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.