He had been touched
with the prevailing romanticism; he had written hymns like
Manzoni, and, like Carrer, he sought to poetize the traditions and
superstitions of his countrymen. He found a richer and deeper vein
than the Venetian poet among his native hills and the neighboring
mountains of Slavonia, but I cannot say that he wrought it to much
better effect. The two volumes which he published in 1840 contain many
ballads which are very graceful and musical, but which lack the fresh
spirit of songs springing from the popular heart, while they also want
the airy and delicate beauty of the modern German ballads. Among the
best of them are two which Dall' Ongaro built up from mere lines and
fragments of lines current among the people, as in later years he more
successfully restored us two plays of Menander from the plots and
a dozen verses of each. "One may imitate," he says, "more or less
fortunately, Manzoni, Byron, or any other poet, but not the simple
inspirations of the people. And 'The Pilgrim who comes from Rome,' and
the 'Rosettina,' if one could have them complete as they once were,
would probably make me blush for my elaborate variations." But study
which was so well directed, and yet so conscious of its limitations,
could not but be of great value; and Dall' Ongaro, no doubt, owed to
it his gift of speaking so authentically for the popular heart.
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