The Wave
The wave of Gabriele D'Annunzio
In the quiet cove
spark,
scale intesto
like the ancient
lorica
of the cataphract,
the sea.
It seems to fade.
Silver? gets dark?
Suddenly
as a blow to unravel
the weapon, the strength
the wind affects it.
It doesn't last.
The sluggish wave is born,
immediately falls flat.
The wind picks up.
Another wave is born,
gets lost,
like a lamb that grazes
pel green:
a bow of foam
that leaps!
But the wind comes back,
reinforces, redounds.
Another wave rises,
in his birth
more lene
what a virginal belly!
Palpitates, salt,
swells, bends,
alums, inclines.
The broad back shines
like crystal;
the light top
gets ruffled
as a mane
horse nivea.
The wind undermines it.
The wave breaks,
falls into the cable
of the sound sulcus;
it froths, it whitens
blossoms, smells,
overwhelms the heart,
it draws the seaweed and the olive;
stretches,
rolls, gallops;
hitch
in another where the event
diè different temper;
the opponent,
assaults it, overcomes it,
it is mixed in, it grows.
Of splashes, of splashes,
of flakes, of irises
bustles in the undertow;
it seems that of crisopazzi
sparkles
and beryls
pouch virids.
O his speech!
Rinse, wash,
roars, pops, crashes,
roars, laughs, sings,
accords, disagrees,
all welcomes and merges
acute dissonances
in its scrolls
deep,
free and beautiful, numerous and insane,
mighty and soft,
living creature
who enjoys
of its mystery
fleeting.
And the ode to the shore
her sister barefoot
with a light step
and with smooth legs,
Arethusa bird of prey
that steals fruit
whence he filled her womb.
Immediately it leaps
the heart, it radiates
her golden face.
She leaves the flap,
she tilts
to the singing call;
and the wild one
robbery,
the sour of her darling
oblivion in the melode.
And she too enjoys it
like the wave, the dry
fura, almost that all
marine freshness
to nimbus
within the jungles!
Muse, I sang the praise
of my long stanzas.
Analysis of the text The wave
The wave is a poem written by Gabriele D'Annunzio as part of the Alcyone poetic collection and was published during the year 1903. The subject of D'Annunzio's lyric is the wave, therefore a simple subject that evokes nature in motion . Among its meanings it evokes fleetingness, the sensation of freshness and impetuosity. The wave lasts a few moments: it is born, grows and finally disappears in a continuous and incessant motion.
The poem consists of a stanzas of about 99 lines which ends with a final couplet; the rhymes are kissed, crossed and sometimes follow a free pattern. The verses are especially septenary, senary and trisyllable. Within the text there are various semantic fields: that of nature, war, movement (underlined by the presence of various verbs of movement, light and finally noise.
