Antonia Pozzi (1912–1938)

Antonia Pozzi was born to a prominent and cultured Italian family, the daughter of an aristocratic mother and a successful lawyer father. She traveled extensively and spoke French, English, and German. In 1935, she graduated from the University of Milan with a degree in philology and wrote her thesis on the works of Flaubert. She made friends with other poets such as Vittorio Sereni. She had a brief, unhappy love affair with her classics tutor and suffered from depression. She began writing poetry as a teenager and continued during the years when fascist Italy was moving towards involvement in a world war. In December 1938, at age 26, she lay down in a field on the outskirts of Milan and swallowed poison. She died the next day, leaving behind diaries, notebooks and pages of poetry. Her father Roberto Pozzi selected and edited a bowdlerized edition published as Parole the following year. Subsequent volumes have restored much of the original emotional and erotic honesty to the poems. She is now compared by literary scholars to American women modernists such as H.D. and Amy Lowell. A 2009 documentary about Antonia Pozzi entitled "Poesia che mi guardi" ("Poem You’re Looking At Me") was presented at the Venice Film Festival.