The Lament for Italy: Byron, Dante and A. D. Hope

This paper will examine the tradition of the “lament for Italy” poem, as inaugurated by Dante in Purgatorio VI. Byron sees two of Italy’s greatest poets, Dante and Tasso, as both bewailing the fetters imposed on the land and, perhaps with less conviction, anticipating a future release from them. The paper will study in particular the growing importance of the figure of Dante for Byron. Echoes of Il Purgatorio can be heard in the Don Juan Cantos written in Ravenna; Byron may have felt the influence of Shelley (who also translated Dante and experimented with terza rima), and have been affected by Shelley’s own belief in the catalytic effect of the act of translation. The paper will conclude by examining a poem by the Australian poet, A. D. Hope, “A Letter from Rome” (1958). Hope embeds quotations from Dante’s lament for Italy in the poem, while also engaging with his romantic predecessor in his visit to Rome. Paradoxically, although confronting Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Hope uses the form of ottava rima, defining it “just the thing” for “easy-going verse”. In fact, his poem grows increasingly serious, a tonal shift he sees as also characterizing Childe Harold. Adopting the forms of Italian poetry, just as Byron did in his own works, Hope manages to confer a sense of universality on his work; he shows how the lament for Italy remains as pertinent a form as ever, paying homage to two great poets who managed to turn their own pains and troubles into works that “spoke for Europe”.