‘This railway-town was always dear to me
Its factories on mutilated fields
Decaying high-rise fracturing the view
Of chimney-stacks whose blackened brick
Serves here as horizon –
Limits which an adolescent mind’s-eye
Transfigured into sensual luxury
Of suspended happiness – the Infinite
Where hearts are unafraid
When traffic fouls the logic of the trees
And sets that noise against eternity
Where ages end and present time
Subsumed in cosmic silence
Lies starless in benign depths of its sea’
This is a parody of Leopardi –
His poem ‘L’Infinito’ to amend
From mystical-pastoral meditation
Had he alighted and resigned
His aristo-patrician view at Crewe
Then to recall for him again by train
Of thought discounting time
His brief stays in Bologna
Parallel rail hub for his native land
Bologna that gave lift to
His pessimistic spirit
Respite from his ‘via negativa’
Cold rooms in which he lived alone
Have long become a pizza parlour
Affordable and sociable for students
Opposite there’s a toyshop’s
Comical compendium
Bologna’s convivial company
Drew him to gregarious dancing conversation
Here where students flirt and talk
Beneath his solemn plaque
Fulfilling life he failed to find
Leopardi in Bologna lingers
Surprised by sudden warmth
Encircled by kind company
.
Bernard Saint
Illustration: Claire Palmer
.