The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1899-08-18
ITALY'S MAIDEN POET.
The Daughter of a Poor LabOrer Ua-
aided Gains Literary
Fame.

This girl, hardly out of her teens,
unknown, humble, virtuous, the mis-
tress of school at one of the far north
ern Italian villages, which even the
wheels of tram had not yet reached,
without any editorial flourish of trum-
pets, without powerful patronage,
without benevolent and interested
friends, with only bundle of leaves
sewn together in a white volume, has
succeeded in gaining literary triumph,
not in her own country alone, but in
the greatest part of Europe. In every
corner of Italy, indeed, voices are raised
in wonder and praise at the supreme
power of the poems--their strength and
beauty-that have had their birth in the
heart and brain of the schoolmistress
of Motta-Visconti. Here in this small
market town, on the edge of the Ticino,
are extensive woods, known to the
hunters from Milan, to which Ada
Negri resorted to hear the message
of the wind as it sighed and sang
through the branches Of the trees. The
poems in which she has interpreted ma
ture in it's ever-changing aspects OF
glory and gloom, in which she has given
a tongue to the woes and sorrows which
are the portion of man, to the oppres-
sion of the rich, to the hard lot of the
poor, and those in which she has spok-
en- of the beauty and tenderness of true
love, have called forth the most enthu-
siastic praises from the most distin-
guished critics. In England her work
may not be widely known except among
literary men and am not aware that
her poems have ever been translated
either her first volume, "Fatalita," or
her more recent, called "Tempeste,"
1000 copies of which were called for
before the twelve-month had expired.
Ada Negri is the daughter of poor
laborer, one who has worked in the
mines, and her mother was a weaver of
wool, who, though often weary and al
WAYS feeble, worked necessarily in
mandatory, bearing up bravely
against circumstances, because she was
working for her daughter, who wished
to study. The poor toiler in the wool
factory, guided simply by maternal in
stinct and by the Judgment of the mis-
tress of the asylum where her little
daughter was sent for two years, saw in
her child genius and courage far
above the common. She gave her the
opportunity of studying in the normal
school of Lodi, while she wore out her
own existence in the wool factory to Sc
cure for Ada happy future. The low
ing mother remained at her daily toll
with this object, alternating her ardu-
Gus work with enforced rest in the
wards of the hospital, where she was at
one time laid up for ~ months among
those who were received in its walls be-
cause threatened with consumption.
In a few lines'in her poem "Madre
Operaia" Ada Negri sings of the sub
lime sacrifice of her unhappy mother
who purchased with hunger, with cold,
with life itself, noble destiny for her
child. Her daughter had the means of
studying, and the poor wool weaver
took heart, though her limbs were
weary and she was suffering from i'll
health. Her daughter studied and the
mother, worn out and exhausted, put
into her work, in the immensely of her
affection, some drops of blood and
sweat that nourished her dream of for
tune and glory for her child, careless of
everything, content with anything, If
only there should be in the future a
luminous destiny for Ada and her brown
head yet covered with gold and laurel.