Un'anima in bicicletta. Lettura di Ultima preghiera di Giorgio Caproni

Abstract

The article examines Giorgio Caproni's Ultima Preghiera, a poem in the collection Il seme del piangere from 1959. Within this collection, which includes poems written in the period 1950-1958, Ultima preghiera is part of the last section entitled Versi livornesi, which bears the dedication "To my mother, Anna Picchi" and which brings together twenty-two poems of various lengths (written in the years 1954-58) all centred on the figure of the poet’s mother. In the first part of the article, a close reading of the poem aims to highlight the autonomy of the text through the analysis of its linguistic, rhythmic, metric, and thematic characteristics. The text will then be analysed in the context of Versi livornesi, showing the thematic and formal affinities between this poem and the others devoted to the mother – and more generally within Caproni's lyric production – aiming at an overall interpretation of the poem. In conclusion, some cursory considerations on the limits of interpretation, inspired by Umberto Eco, will be presented.