how many times have you heard me, in the maturest hours and in the unripe, and always in vain, call out to her, who seems to be my heart's only memory, whether nearby or far away!

This intriguing Naxos reissue contains four works for large orchestra, two - the Polonia and Rule Britannia Overtures - written during Wagner's poverty-stricken early years, the other two - the American Centennial March and the Kaisermarsch -- written during the still poverty-stricken years of his maturest powers (and by now he had learned how to milk wealthy admirers for sustenance in luxury).

It is highly significant that this Keatsian tableau of three figures of compassion and unity has been re-envisioned by Morrison, for it is the centerpiece of what must be called Keats's ethically maturest work, his initiation into tragic empathy, into an ethic of compassion.

But coming at once to the point, the English historical plays are to me not only the most eminent as dramatic performances [my maturest judgment confirming the impressions of my early years, that the distinctiveness and glory of the Poet reside not in his vaunted dramas of the passions, but those founded on the contests of English dynasties, and the French wars,] but form, as we get it all, the chief in a complexity of puzzles.

It is instead the result of what Solmi calls "una sorta di divertita curiosita." In characterizing the essence of Saba's poetry at its best and maturest, Solmi talks about "il tono del tutto umiliato e prosastico, privo di qualsiasi sonorita eloquente e letteraria, di cio che nel Saba permane al di sotto del canto, elemento greggio e pura materia." Concerning Leonardo Sinisgalli too, Solmi notes the influence of Ungaretti and Montale and the way Sinisgalli "l'ha piegata ad espressioni di grazia ben sue, con un piglio, una fermezza, una giustezza di tocco che hanno giustamente colpito gl'intenditori."