The Poetry of Place: Eugenio Montale's Relationship with Human and Nonhuman Nature in the Mediterranean

The Mediterranean coast and sea characterize Italy's natural and cultural identity, wielding a determining influence in shaping the lives of its inhabitants. Both suggestive and exuberant, the Mediterranean Sea embraces Italy and has always played an important role in the country's literature and art. The bizarre fact is that Italy suffers from a water shortage in a country surrounded by water. Moreover, the land is literally disappearing into the sea. If we superimpose a map of the coastline transformations expected to take place over upcoming decades over the current map of Italy-transformations due in part to anthropogenic climate change-we learn that more than 4,500 square kilometers of the Italian peninsula, including some of its most beautiful coastline, may well disappear forever. In a land increasingly characterized by drought and threatened by the sea, it is interesting to analyze how one of the greatest Italian poets interacted with the sea, with its vastness and power. This paper examines Eugenio Montale's relationship with human and nonhuman nature in the Mediterranean and proposes an ecocritical analysis of several parts of the poem ”Mediterraneo,” included in the 1925 book of poetry Ossi di seppia and of the poem ”L'Anguilla” (The Eel) from his 1948 collection La Bufera e altro (The Storm and Other Poems). Montale (1896-1981) lived in Liguria, in northern Italy, and he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1975. His opus expresses an extremely personal relationship with the Mediterranean environment and describes how it is intertwined with his life and his literary imagination.