Editing Giacomo Leopardi (section)

===The ''Canzoni'' (1820–1823)===
Leopardi returns to the evocation of ancient eras and exhorts his contemporaries to seek in the writings of the classics the noble ancient virtues.

====''Ad Angelo Mai''====
On the occasion of the discovery of the ''De Republica'' of [[Cicero]] on the part of [[Angelo Mai|Mai]], Leopardi wrote the poem ''Ad Angelo Mai'' ("To Angelo Mai") in which he invokes the figures of many Italian poets, from [[Dante]] and [[Petrarch]] to [[Torquato Tasso]] whom he felt so near to himself, to his contemporary [[Vittorio Alfieri]].

====''Nelle nozze della sorella Paolina''====
In the lyrical ''Nelle nozze'' ("On the marriage of my sister Paolina"), an event that failed to happen, in the course of wishing happiness for his sister, the poet uses the opportunity to exalt the strength and the virtue of the women of antiquity and to denigrate his own time because it did not allow one to be virtuous and happy, since only after death are those who have lived a morally good life praised.

====''Ad un vincitor di pallone''====
The canto ''Ad un vincitor di pallone'' ("To the winner of a ballgame") expresses disdain for the tedium of a life that is nothing but a monotonous repetition of human affairs and to which only danger can restore value: only he who has been near the gates of death is able to find sweetness in life.

====''Bruto minore''====
In ''Bruto minore'' ("Brutus the Younger"), Brutus the assassin of [[Julius Caesar|Caesar]] is depicted as a man who has always believed in honour, virtue and liberty and who has ultimately sacrificed everything for these ideals. He has come to the realization, too late to change things, that everything was done in vain, that everything has been pointless, and that he will even die dishonoured and disgraced for his well-intentioned actions.

His meditations bring him to the conclusion that morality is meaningless; [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jove]] rewards only the selfish and plays arbitrary games with hapless mankind. Man is more unhappy than the rest of the animal kingdom because the latter do not know that they are unhappy and therefore do not meditate on the question of suicide and, even if they could, nothing would prevent them from carrying out the act without hesitation.

====''Ultimo canto di Saffo''====
[[File:Brygos Painter ARV 385 228 Alkaios and Sappho - Dionysos and maenad (08).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Sappho]] on a fifth-century BC [[red-figure vase]] by the [[Brygos Painter]]]]

[[Sappho]] is also a tragic figure. In fact, she is a great and generous spirit, an exceptional mind and a sublime character trapped in a miserable body. Sappho loved the light (the loved one, according to the legend, was named [[Phaon]], in Greek Φάων, from φῶς, light) but her life was made of shadow; she loved nature and beauty, but nature has been like an evil stepmother to her and she, who is sensitive, cultured and refined, is closed in the prison of a deformed body. Nor can the greatness of her genius help to release her from this horror.

In Sappho, Leopardi sees himself retarded, but in reality, the poet of Lesbos was neither deformed nor unhappy as she is depicted by Leopardi, who based his depiction on a false traditional belief. Sappho knew, tasted, and sang of beauty and love more than was possible for Leopardi. But the resignation to unhappiness, to pain and to solitude, and the renunciation of the joys of life, sounds in the verses of Leopardi like the sincere sigh of a feminine soul.

The canto begins as a sweet apostrophe to the placid nights, once dear to the serene poet, but the words turn rapidly to a violent evocation of nature in tempest which echoes her inner turmoil. The anguishing and accusative questions which Leopardi poses to a destiny which has denied beauty to the miserable Sappho are cut short by the thought of death. After having wished to the man she has loved in vain that little bit of happiness which is possible to attain on this earth, Sappho concludes by affirming that of all the hopes for joy, of all the illusions, there remains to await her only [[Tartarus]].

====''Alla primavera'' and ''Al conte Carlo Pepoli''====
The canti ''Alla primavera'' ("To Spring") and ''Al conte Carlo Pepoli'' ("To Count [[Carlo Pepoli]]") emerge from the same spiritual situation. The first laments the fall of the great illusions ("gli ameni inganni") and the imaginary mythological worlds of the past, which embellished and enriched the fantasy of man. The second decries the loss of happiness that has resulted.

In ''Alla primavera'', Leopardi praises the ancient times when the nymphs populated the fields, the woods, the springs, the flowers and the trees. Although the lyrical style is apparently classical, it is also pervaded by the characteristic dissatisfaction with the presence of the romantics. Leopardi, here, romanticizes the pure intentions of the Greeks, since he was actually romantic in his sentiments and classical in his imagination and intellect.

In the ''Epistolario a Carlo Pepoli'', Leopardi attempts to prove to his friend the thesis (reminiscent of Buddhism) according to which, since life has no other aim but happiness and since happiness is unattainable, all of life is nothing but an interminable struggle. But he who refuses to work is oppressed by the tedium of life and must seek distraction in useless pastimes. Moreover, those who dedicate themselves to poetry, if they have no fatherland, are tormented more than those who do by a lack of freedom because they fully appreciate the value of the idea of nationhood.

At this point, a disillusioned Leopardi considers abandoning poetry for philosophy, but without any hope of glory. He has resigned himself to the certainty of pain and of boredom to which mankind is condemned and he therefore believes it necessary to abandon the illusions and poetry in order to speculate on the laws and destiny of the universe.

====''Alla sua donna''====
In 1823, he wrote the canto ''Alla sua donna'' ("To his woman"), in which he expresses his ardent aspiration for a feminine ideal which, with love, might render life beautiful and desirable. During his youth, he had dreamt in vain of encountering a woman who embodied such a feminine ideal: a platonic idea, perfect, untouchable, pure, incorporeal, evanescent, and illusory.

It is a hymn not to one of Leopardi's many "loves", but to the discovery that he had unexpectedly made—at that summit of his life from which he would later decline—that what he had been seeking in the lady he loved was "something" beyond her, that was made visible in her, that communicated itself through her, but was beyond her. This beautiful hymn to Woman ends with this passionate invocation:

{|
 |-
|
:"''Se dell'eterne idee''
:''L'una sei tu, cui di sensibil forma''
:''Sdegni l'eterno senno esser vestita,''
:''E fra caduche spoglie''
:''Provar gli affanni di funerea vita;''
:''O s'altra terra ne' supremi giri''
:''Fra' mondi innumerabili t'accoglie,''
:''E più vaga del Sol prossima stella''
:''T'irraggia, e più benigno etere spiri;''
:''Di qua dove son gli anni infausti e brevi,''
:''Questo d'ignoto amante inno ricevi.''"<ref>{{cite book|url=http://digilander.libero.it/il_leopardi/leopardi_alla_sua_donna.html |title=Giacomo Leopardi – opera omnia – alla sua donna – letteratura italiana |publisher=Digilander.libero.it |access-date=1 August 2012}}</ref>
||
:"If you are one of those
:eternal Ideas, that the eternal mind
:scorns to clothe in solid form,
:to endure the pain of our deathly life
:among fallen bodies,
:or if you are received in another earth,
:in the highest circles, among
:the innumerable worlds, and a star
:closer and brighter than the sun
:illuminates you, who breathe a purer air:
:accept your unknown lover, in this hymn
:from this world of unhappy and brief days."<ref>[http://digilander.libero.it/il_leopardi/translate_english/leopardi_to_his_lady.html English translation] by A. S. Kline.</ref>
|}

[[File:Leopardi Opere Napoli 1835.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Cover of the ''[[Small Moral Works|Operette morali]]'' in the last edition of Leopardi's ''Works'' in his lifetime, Naples 1835]]