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PoemsFebruary 1998 Introduction to Six poems by Umberto Saba Geoffrey Brock's introduction to Saba's poems In 1911, two years after Marinetti spawned Futurism, the all-but-unknown Umberto Saba (1883–1957) wrote his own manifesto, which sadly never had the impact of Marinetti’s; it remained unpublished until after Saba’s death. His tract, titled “What Remains for Poets to Do,” begins with typical directness: “It remains for poets to make poetry honest.” Today, when much poetry seems merely honest, it may be difficult to appreciate Saba’s prescription. But Italian poetry was emerging from the decadentismo of Gabriele d’Annunzio, who could falsify “passions and admirations … for the sole wretched end of gaining a more striking stanza or a more resonant line.” Saba’s charge mirrors Auden’s indictment of his younger self for espousing in “Spain” a “wicked doctrine … simply because it sounded to me rhetorically effective. ... This article is available to subscribers and for individual purchaseSubscribe to TNC (Print and Online editions) Subscribe to TNC (Online only) This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 16 February 1998, on page 35 Copyright © 2012 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/introsaba-brock-3107
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