"Dove sta memoria" : Charles Tomlinson and the chimes of Italy

Abstract

When young Tomlinson first came to Italy, he lived in that part of Liguria which had been celebrated by many poets, from Shelley to Pound. It was in Lerici, where he worked as a secretary to Percy Lubbock for a short period, that he discovered his poetic vocation, while his main ambition was still that of becoming a painter. Although he was partly influenced by his many readings on Italy and its glories, in his early verse Tomlinson's efforts were towards an unconventional representation of the inspiring experience he was living in such places as Venice, Carrara, Lerici, etc. His search for new paths in poetry was helped by Ruskin's Modern Painters whose teachings constituted the bedrock of a poetics which found its bearings in the objective tradition.