Essay Questions

How does Leopardi describe Sylvia?

In his poem "To Sylvia," Leopardi describes a young lady called Sylvia, who had fallen ill with tuberculosis and unfortunately passed away. He describes her before her illness, saying that "beauty still shone in [her] sidelong, laughing eyes." Later, Sylvia is described in the following way: "You fell, unhappy one, and from the distance, with your hand, you pointed towards death's coldness and the silent grave." We see that in the first description, Sylvia is associated with vitality and happiness, but in the second passage, she is associated with death, coldness, and silence.

How does Leopardi describe the moon in his poetry?

It seems that Leopardi was fascinated by the moon, as it is a key inspiration for many of his poems. In his poem "To the Moon," Leopardi writes to the moon, describing it as being "filled with mistiness, trembling, that's how your face seemed to me." In another poem, the moon is described as being "like an old man, white-haired, infirm, barefoot and half-naked, with a heavy load on his shoulders." With these two examples, we can see how Leopardi uses the moon in different ways; in the first, he associates the moon with a sense of mysticism and mystery, while in the second he personifies the moon and gives it a humanly quality, in order to emphasize its apparent suffering.