Abstract: This article has as its object of study Foglio di via e altri versi, the first poetic collection by Franco Fortini, painfully intertwined with the events of political and racial persecution under fascism, refuge in neutral Switzerland and contacts with the partisans. The reflection proceeds on two parallel tracks: the first is that of the meditation of the ego focused on the early youth spent in Florence, where the poet’s feeling of exile and intellectual drowsiness was born. From this torpor he awakens only with the tragedy of war. The second track on which the reflection proceeds is the pain shared with the other victims of fascism. It will be this feeling that will found the new political conscience of the poet who perceives a new relationship with the world and discovers for the first time the Italy of the soldiers, the infantry, the “proletarians” sent to die for the Duce.
Key Words: Foglio di via, Fortini, poetry, fascism, war, partisans.
