There is
no telling where it was printed, the mysterious date of publication
being "Italy, 1861", and nothing more, with the English motto: "Adieu,
my native land, adieu!"
The principal poem here is called "Le Fantasie", and consists of a
series of lyrics in which an Italian exile contrasts the Lombards,
who drove out Frederick Barbarossa in the twelfth century, with the
Lombards of 1829, who crouched under the power defied of old. It is
full of burning reproaches, sarcasms, and appeals; and it probably
had some influence in renewing the political agitation which in Italy
followed the French revolution of 1830. Other poems of Berchet
represent social aspects of the Austrian rule, like one entitled
"Remorse", which paints the isolation and wretchedness of an Italian
woman married to an Austrian; and another, "Giulia", which gives a
picture of the frantic misery of an Austrian conscription in Italy.
A very impressive poem is that called "The Hermit of Mt. Cenis". A
traveler reaches the summit of the pass, and, looking over upon the
beauty and magnificence of the Italian plains, and seeing only their
loveliness and peace, his face is lighted up with an involuntary
smile, when suddenly the hermit who knows all the invisible disaster
and despair of the scene suddenly accosts him with, "Accursed be he
who approaches without tears this home of sorrow!"
At the time the Romantic School rose in Italian literature, say from
1815 till 1820, society was brilliant, if not contented or happy.
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