The poem #Parabola [Parable] is from Guido Gozzano’s early collection La via del rifugio (1907), and it marked the beginning of his career. In this poem, we find his desire to communicate, to dialogue with the reader, and in doing this Gozzano “sets aulic verse against prose, setting off sparks”, as Montale stated. The ironic pessimism of the poet is evident in this work, as is his need to question the existential problems of the world around him. What is life? And what is the sense of life? Why are we always after something more?

So, if we take the child to be Man, and the apple to be the present, the poem is rather clear: our avid eyes are always looking toward the future, rushing towards it in search of something we think we must have, but in that frenetic drive forward, we sometimes forget to “savour”, to enjoy what we have today. And such is life: we devour it, consume it in the hopes of something better without realizing that what was best is often what we already possess…

via Parabola/Parable by Guido Gozzano

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