Giuseppe Ungaretti was one of the most famous poet, who left an indelible sign in the literary field. He was born in Alexandria of Egypt even if his family was from Lucca (Tuscany, Italy) he came back to Italy for a short period to study Law.
In 1913 he went to Paris to attend Sorbonne University and there he met philosophers and writers like Bergson, Apollinaire, Palazzeschi, Marinetti and painters like Picasso and Modigliani. In this city he discovered himself as a poet . In 1914 he came back to Italy, then in 1915 he had to join the army and there he started writing. The first collection was named : “Il porto sepolto" (The burried harbour).
After the World War I he married Jeanne Dupoix and worked in Paris as a journalist for literary magazines. They had two children. a daughter Ninon and a son Antonietto.
In 1936 Ungaretti became lecturer in Italian literature at the university of Sao Paolo, Brazil .
After a few years 1939, his son Antonietto died at the age of 9 and in 1942 he came back to Italy where he was appointed professor of modern Italian literature at the university in Rome. He died in Milan in 1970.

Ungaretti wrote his first poems in 1914 when he was soldiers on the Austrian border ; the first collection “Il porto sepolto" (The burried harbour) was written in 1916. The second collection “Allegria di naufragi" (The joy of shipwreck) was written in 1919. Both the collections were joined in the only poem : “L'Allegria". This poem - brief fragments written in language purged of traditional ornament, in which each word is charged with its original power and intensity - crystallized the revolution begun in Italian poetry by the Futurists and the Vociani (contributors to the periodical La Voce, a literary magazine written and published in Florence ), and placed hin in the forfront of the “hermetic" movement. “Sentimento del tempo" (Time feeling), published in 1933, represents the second period of Ungaretti where he discovers an absolute time and he thinks of the destiny of the man in his relationship with the eternal Life.

The collection “Il Dolore"(The Sorrow), published in 1947, is dedicated to his son's death and in the same time the poet reflects on the tragedy of the World War II . In this poem, Ungaretti examines in deepth the mistery of God-man that is Christ embodied in the Christian tradition.
Other important poems are : “La terra promessa" (Promised earth), published in 1950 ; “Un grido e paesaggi" ( A cry and landscapes), published in 1952 ;“Il taccuino del vecchio" (Old man's notebook), published in 1960.

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