Book contents
- The Italian Idea
- Cambridge Studies in Romanticism
- The Italian Idea
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Note on the Text
- Short Titles and Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Italians and the ‘Public Mind’ before 1815
- Chapter 2 London 1816
- Chapter 3 London 1817–1819
- Chapter 4 Veneto 1817–1819
- Chapter 5 London and Naples, 1819–1821
- Chapter 6 Pisa 1820–1822
- Coda
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Romanticism
Chapter 6 - Pisa 1820–1822
Sailing in the Wind’s Eye
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 December 2019
- The Italian Idea
- Cambridge Studies in Romanticism
- The Italian Idea
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Note on the Text
- Short Titles and Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Italians and the ‘Public Mind’ before 1815
- Chapter 2 London 1816
- Chapter 3 London 1817–1819
- Chapter 4 Veneto 1817–1819
- Chapter 5 London and Naples, 1819–1821
- Chapter 6 Pisa 1820–1822
- Coda
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Romanticism
Summary
Three poets who had been engaged with Italy and its literature since 1815 attempted to form a literary coterie at Pisa in 1822; over seven years they had developed a radical idea of Italy, while their hopes for European revolution were frequently disappointed. Byron and Shelley were settled in a land that in climate, landscape, and culture could be their paradise, but were also aware that their poetry, convictions, and morality had made them pariahs in England. The belated arrival of Hunt at Livorno, only a week before Shelley’s death, makes him a fit subject for the coda, as his disaffection with Italy when he experienced it at first hand anticipates the changes to Anglo-Italian culture after 1823. The chapter begins by briefly considering Byron’s development in the ottava rima while at Ravenna in 1820 and most of 1821: his deeper engagement mirrors Shelley’s accretive study of Italian forms at Pisa. In the aftermath of the failed Carbonari uprising and with expulsion from the Romagna looming, Shelley implored Byron to ‘undertake a great Poem’ and persuaded him to join the exiles at Pisa.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Italian IdeaAnglo-Italian Radical Literary Culture, 1815–1823, pp. 145 - 168Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020