The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1902-03-21
ITALY'S POPULAR POET.
Young Daughter of Factory Opera.
tive Has Risen to High
Fame.

The favorite poet of the Italians is
Ada Negri, young woman who has
suddenly sprung into fame by the pas
sionate fire of her verses and their
simple, strong, true, democratic senti-
ment. Although she was first heard
of in 1892, her works now have a larger
sale than those of any other author
in Italy, and she is better known to
the common people than any other,
says Rome correspondent of the Chi
cago Record-Herald. She has pub
lished two volumes. The first, which
included $50 pages of lyrics, passed
through six editions very rapidly, and
every line of its contents has again
and again been copied in the newspa-
pers. The second volume appeared in
1896, and had even larger sale, APP
pealing to higher class of readers be-
cause it's contents were more mature
and showed higher literary polish
without detriment to their quality.
Miss Negri has a third volume in press,
which will appear shortly, and it is
awaited with great curiosity, because
since the second volume was published
her circumstances and surroundings
nave been entirely changed and she
has been translated from poverty to
wealth and from the privations of
garnet to the luxuries of palace at
Milan.
Ada Negri was born February 3, 1870,
in a little village near Milan, where
her father and mother were factory
operatives. Her father died when she
was mere child, and her mother led
miserable life of labor and sacrifice
in order to secure an education for
her child. In 1888, when she was 1s,
the girl obtained a situation as teach
er in the village school, and took her
mother out of the factory They lived
IN the humblest quarters in two lit
tie rooms at the top of tenement
mouse, but managed to survive and
were comparatively happy on wages
OF eight dollars a month. A poem
entitled "The Working Mother" which
has appeared again and again in every
newspaper in Italy, most frequently
in those which are read by the work
ing classes, and thus has become as
familiar to the Italian people as Long
fellows psalm of Life" is to us. is
supposed to be an epitome of her
career and a revelation of the feelings
OF a woman in her circumstances. It
described the struggles of mother
who is working to educate son, and
everybody who knows the story Of
Ada Negri's life recognizes the per-
sonal quality.
In 1892 the girl went to Milan for
brief visit to arrange for the publica-
ton of her poems in book form, leaving
her native village for the first time,
and there saw luxury, beauty and art,
which was a revelation beyond her
dreams. The few books she had found
in the village library had not prepared
her for the splendor of the cathedral,
the buildings of the business section
and the shaded palaces Of the outer
streets, and, although she did not cross
"a threshold, her imagination was ex-
cited and her ambition received new
impulse, when after two days of de-
light she returned to her garnet and
wooden shoes. From this moment her
poems took on new color. They be-
came brighter and more vivacious,
with less melancholy, as if few rays
OF sunshine had been admitted to her
soul.