PRATI, GIOVANNI. - Poet, b. Jan. 27, 1814 at Campomaggiore near Dasindo (Trento), d. in Rome on May 9, 1884.
His poetic activity can be divided into three periods. The first (c. 1841-52), with the exception of the novella Edmenegarda, comprises a group of typically Romantic lyric collections (Canti lirici, Canti per il popolo e Bollate, 1843; Memorie e lacrime, 1844; Passeggiate solitarie,
(from P. Jean Calès, Le p. F., Paris 1918, p. III)
PRAT, FERDINAND - Portrait.
1847; Storia e fantasia, 1851; Canti politici, 1852). The second is marked by attempts at more extensive poems (Dio e l'umanità, of which only the episode Jelone di Siracusa was written, 1852; Satana e le Grazie, 1855; Rodolfo, 1853; Ariberto, 1860; Armando, 1868: the last three engage in the description of souls sick with skepticism). In the third
P., concentrates his inspiration around his most original motifs, which are expressed in a musical descriptivism of nature felt in its totality through small creatures (Psiche, 1876; Iside, 1878).
The frequent intervention of religion in P.'s work is one of the means for elevating facts to that "ideal" which is meant to be the subject and not the perpetual [theme] of his poetry. Thus God can be equated with a nebulous, ineluctable destiny, and as such become a persuader of passion and of evil, while at other times religion is identified with common morality and with the gentle and familiar affections of the poet; elsewhere religion and love are mingled in a manner that distantly foreshadows Fogazzaro; the Fall and Christian redemption are favored as pathetic and effective elements; prayer becomes a musical and scenic motif.
Politically, P. passed from an enthusiastic adherence to the attitudes of a papacy contemplated as liberator and pacifier (according to ideologies that echo those of Gioberti and Balbo) to a distinction between the work of man and that of the pontiff in the activity of the Pope after 1848 (A Ferdinando di Borbone, in Canti politici). This preluded an analogous distinction between State and Church, to which P. adhered after the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy. He professed himself a believer, as in the other [phases], so too in the final phase of his life (Discorso al Senato del 7 giugno 1876). By contrast, the attempt to bring back within the sphere of religion the panicky naturalism of that same phase, which is moreover of a specifically artistic nature, appears hardly persuasive.
Bibliography6 works
Marcello Aurigemma