Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1899-07-27
lTALY's PEASANT GIRL POET.
Her Poems Called Forth prais,
From Europe's Critics.


The Culver: This girl, hardly out
OF her teens, unknown, humble, viz.
tuouc, the mistress of school in one
of the far northera Italian villages
which even the wheels of tram had
not reached, without any editorial
flourish of trumpets, without power
full patronage, without benevolent and
interested friends, with only bundle
OF leaves sewn together in white VIOLA
umc. has succeeded in gaining liter
ary triumph, not in her own country
alone, but throughout 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 tho heart and brain of the school
mistress 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
Gang through the branches of the
tees. The poems in which she has
interpreted nature in it's ever chang
ing aspects of glory and gloom; in
which She has given tongue to the
wees ard sorrows which are the por-
ton Of man, to the oppression of the
rich, 10 the hard lot of the poor, and
those i'll which she has spoken of the
beauty and tenderness of true love,
have called for the most enthusiastic
praises from the most distinguished
critics. In England her work may not
be widely known except among liter
ary men, and l 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 twelvemonth had expired.
Ada Negri is the daughter of poor
aaborer, one who worl1ad in the mines,
and her mother was a weaver of wool,
who, though often weary and always
feeble, worked necessarily in manu-
factory, bearing up bravely against
circumstances because she was work.
ing 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
secure for Ada a happy future. The
Loving mother remained at her daily
toll with this object, alternating her
arduous work with enforced rest in
the wards of the hospital, where she
was at one time laid up for twelve
months among those who were re-
ceived within it's walls because threat
ened with consumption. In a few
lines in her poem, "Madre Operaia,"
Ada Negri sings of the sublime sacri.
flee of her unhappy mother, who pur.
chased with hunger. with cold, with
life itself a noble destiny for her child.
Her daughter had the means of study
ing, and the poor wool weaver took
heart, though her limbs were weary
and she was suffering from ill-health.
Her daughter studied, and the moth
er, worn out and exhausted, put into
her work, in the immensely of her af-
fiction. some drops of blood and
sweat that nourished her dreams of
fortune and glory for her child, care
less of everything, content with any
thing, if only there should be in the
future luminous destiny for Ada and
her brown mead yet be crowned with
gold and ian1el.