Giuseppe Ungaretti Giuseppe Ungaretti ( ; 10 February 1888 – 2 June 1970 ) was an Italian modernist poet , journalist , essayist , critic , academic , and recipient of the inaugural 1970 Neustadt International Prize for Literature . A leading representative of the experimental trend known as " Ermetismo " ( " Hermeticism " ) , he was one of the most prominent contributors to 20th century Italian literature . Influenced by symbolism , he was briefly aligned with futurism . Like many futurists , he took an irredentist position during World War I . Ungaretti debuted as a poet while fighting in the trenches , publishing one of his best - known pieces , " L ' allegria " ( " The Joy " ) . During the interwar period , Ungaretti was a collaborator of Benito Mussolini ( whom he met during his socialist accession ) , as well as a foreign - based correspondent for " Il Popolo d ' Italia " and " Gazzetta del Popolo " . While briefly associated with the Dadaists , he developed " Hermeticism " as a personal take on poetry . After spending several years in Brazil , he returned home during World War II , and was assigned a teaching post at the University of Rome , where he spent the final decades of his life and career . His Fascist past was the subject of controversy . Biography . Early life . Ungaretti was born in Alexandria , Egypt into a family from the Tuscan city of Lucca . As a child , he was nursed by a Nubian nurse named Bahita , and , as an adult , claimed that her influence accounted for his own exoticism . Ungaretti ' s father worked on digging the Suez Canal , where he suffered a fatal accident in 1890 . His widowed mother , who ran a bakery on the edge of the Sahara , educated her child on the basis of Roman Catholic tenets . Giuseppe Ungaretti ' s formal education began in French , at Alexandria ' s Swiss School . It was there that he became acquainted with Parnassianism and Symbolist poetry , in particular with Gabriele d ' Annunzio , Charles Baudelaire , Jules Laforgue , Stéphane Mallarmé and Arthur Rimbaud . He also became familiar with works of the Classicists Giacomo Leopardi and Giosuè Carducci , as well as with the writings of maverick author Giovanni Pascoli . This period marked his debut as a journalist and literary critic , with pieces published " Risorgete " , a journal edited by anarchist writer Enrico Pea . At the time , he was in correspondence with Giuseppe Prezzolini , editor of the influential magazine " La Voce " . A regular visitor of Pea ' s " Baracca Rossa " ( " Red House " ) , Ungaretti was himself a sympathizer of anarchist - socialist circles . He abandoned Christianity and became an atheist . It was not until 1928 that he returned to the Catholic faith . In 1912 , the 24 - year - old Giuseppe Ungaretti moved to Paris , France . On his way there , he stopped in Rome , Florence and Milan , meeting face to face with Prezzolini . Ungaretti attended lectures at the Collège de France and the University of Paris , and had among his teachers philosopher Henri Bergson , whom he reportedly admired . The young writer also met and befriended French literary figure Guillaume Apollinaire , a promoter of Cubism and a forerunner of Surrealism . Apollinaire ' s work to be a noted influence on his own . He was also in contact with the Italian expatriates , including leading representatives of Futurism such as Carlo Carrà , Umberto Boccioni , Aldo Palazzeschi , Giovanni Papini and Ardengo Soffici , as well as with the independent visual artist Amedeo Modigliani . World War I and debut . Upon the outbreak of World War I in 1914 , Ungaretti , like his Futurist friends , supported an irredentist position , and called for his country ' s intervention on the side of the Entente Powers . Enrolled in the infantry a year later , he saw action on the Northern Italian theater , serving in the trenches . In contrast to his early enthusiasm , he became appalled by the realities of war . The conflict also made Ungaretti discover his talent as a poet , and , in 1917 , he published the volume of free verse " Il porto sepolto " ( " The Buried Port " ) , largely written on the Kras front . Although depicting the hardships of war life , his celebrated " L ' Allegria " was not unenthusiastic about its purpose ( even if in the poem " Fratelli " , and in others , he describes the absurdity of the war and the brotherhood between all the men ) ; this made Ungaretti ' s stance contrast with that of Lost Generation writers , who questioned their countries ' intents , and similar to that of Italian intellectuals such as Soffici , Filippo Tommaso Marinetti , Piero Jahier and Curzio Malaparte . By the time the 1918 armistice was signed , Ungaretti was again in Paris , working as a correspondent for Benito Mussolini ' s paper " Il Popolo d ' Italia " . He published a volume of French - language poetry , titled " La guerre " ( " The War " , 1919 ) . In 1920 , Giuseppe Ungaretti married the Frenchwoman Jeanne Dupoix , with whom he had a daughter , Ninon ( born 1925 ) , and a son , Antonietto ( born 1930 ) . During that period in Paris , Ungaretti came to affiliate with the anti - establishment and anti - art current known as Dada ism . He was present in the Paris - based Dadaist circle led by Romania n poet Tristan Tzara , being , alongside Alberto Savinio , Julius Evola , Gino Cantarelli , Aldo Fiozzi and Enrico Prampolini , one of the figures who established a transition from Italian Futurism to Dada . In May 1921 , he was present at the Dadaist mock trial of reactionary author Maurice Barrès , during which the Dadaist movement began to separate itself into two competing parts , headed respectively by Tzara and André Breton . He was also affiliated with the literary circle formed around the journal " La Ronda " . " Hermeticism " and fascism . The year after his marriage , Ungaretti returned to Italy , settling in Rome as a Foreign Ministry employee . By then , Mussolini had organized the March on Rome , which confirmed his seizure of power . Ungaretti joined in the National Fascist Party , signing the pro - fascist " Manifesto of the Italian Writers " in 1925 . In his essays of 1926 – 1929 , republished in 1996 , he repeatedly called on the " Duce " to direct cultural development in Italy and reorganize the Italian Academy on fascist lines . He argued : " The first task of the Academy will be to reestablish a certain connection between men of letters , between writers , teachers , publicists . This people hungers for poetry . If it had not been for the miracle of Blackshirts , we would never have leaped this far . " In his private letters to a French critic , Ungaretti also claimed that fascist rule did not imply censorship . Mussolini , who did not give a favorable answer to Ungaretti ' s appeal , prefaced the 1923 edition of " Il porto sepolto " , thus politicizing its message . In 1925 , Ungaretti experienced a religious crisis , which , three years later , made him return to the Roman Catholic Church . Meanwhile , he contributed to a number of journals and published a series of poetry volumes , before becoming a foreign correspondent for " Gazzetta del Popolo " in 1931 , and traveling not only to Egypt , Corsica and the Netherlands , but also to various regions of Italy . It was during this period that Ungaretti introduced " Ermetismo " , baptized with the Italian - language word for " " Hermeticism " " . The new trend , inspired by both Symbolism and Futurism , had its origins in both " Il porto sepolto " , where Ungaretti had eliminated structure , syntax and punctuation , and the earlier contributions of Arturo Onofri . The style was indebted to the influence of Symbolists from Edgar Allan Poe to Baudelaire , Rimbaud , Mallarmé and Paul Valéry . Alongside Ungaretti , its main representatives were Eugenio Montale and Salvatore Quasimodo . Despite the critical acclaim he enjoyed , the poet confronted himself with financial difficulties . In 1936 , he moved to the Brazilian city of São Paulo , and became a Professor of Italian at São Paulo University . It was there that , in 1939 , his son Antonietto died as a result of a badly performed appendectomy . World War II and after . In 1942 , three years after the start of World War II , Ungaretti returned to Axis - allied Italy , where he was received with honors by the officials . The same year , he was made a Professor of Modern Literature at the University of Rome . He continued to write poetry , and published a series of essays . By then , " Hermeticism " had come to an end , and Ungaretti , like Montale and Quasimodo , had adopted a more formal style in his poetry . At the close of the war , following Mussolini ' s downfall , Ungaretti was expelled from the faculty owing to his fascist connections , but reinstated when his colleagues voted in favor of his return . Affected by his wife ' s 1958 death , Giuseppe Ungaretti sought comfort in traveling throughout Italy and abroad . He visited Japan , the Soviet Union , Israel and the United States . In 1964 , he gave a series of lectures at Columbia University in New York City , and , in 1970 , was invited by the University of Oklahoma to receive its Books Abroad Prize . During this last trip , Ungaretti fell ill with bronchopneumonia , and , although he received treatment in New York City , died while under medical supervision in Milan . He was buried in Campo Verano ( Rome ) . Poetry . " L ' Allegria " is a decisive moment of the recent history of Italian literature : Ungaretti revises with novel ideas the poetic style of the " poètes maudits " ( especially the broken verses without punctation marks of Guillaume Apollinaire ’ s " Calligrammes " and the equality between verse and a single word ) , connecting it with his experience of death and pain as a soldier at war . The hope of brotherhood between all the people is expressed strongly , together with the desire of searching for a renovated " harmony " with the universe , impressive in the famous verses of " Mattina " : " I illuminate ( myself ) " < br > " with immensity " A famous poem regarding the First World War is ( soldiers ) : < br > " ( Here we are " < br > " like leaves on " < br > " trees , in Autumn ) " In the successive works he studied the importance of the poetic word ( marked by " Hermeticism " and symbolism ) , as the only way to save the humanity from the universal horror , and was searching for a new way to recuperate the roots of the Italian classical poetry . His last verses are on the poem " l ' Impietrito e il Velluto " , about the memory of the " bright universe eyed " Dunja , an old woman that was house guest of his mother in the time of his childhood . Here is the end : " ( The velvet in the bright gaze of Dunja " < br > " Rapid returns as present mercy ) " Legacy . Although Ungaretti parted company with " Ermetismo ( " Hermeticism " ) " , his early experiments were continued for a while by poets such as Alfonso Gatto , Mario Luzi and Leonardo Sinisgalli . His collected works were published as " Vita di un uomo " ( " The Life of a Man " ) at the time of his death . Two of Ungaretti ' s poems ( " Soldiers – War – Another War " and " Vanity " ) were made into song by American composer Harry Partch ( " Eleven Intrusions " , 1949 – 50 ) ; and eleven poems were set by the French - Romanian composer Horațiu Rădulescu in his cycle " End of Kronos " ( 1999 ) . Fragments of his poetry are set by composer Michael Mantler in Cerco un Paese Innocente , a work recorded in 1994 .