Jan Söffner

• This essay puts forth a definition of poetry rooted in experience. In following Eugenio Montale, it analyzes two of his poems – “I limoni” and “Notizie dall’Amiata” – to show how the poet, rather than constructing discrete poetic worlds, aims at a poetry revealing the world and nature to a concrete reader, unforeseeable for the poet. Poetry thus aims at imbuing this reader’s life with an ephemeral poetic form, rather than evoking its own self-sufficient aesthetics. In doing so, chance and flaws in the social and cultural construction of reality act as co-authors of his “poesia”.