AustLit

Rando investigates '[p]oetry in volume form written by Italian migrants in Australia' that 'began to appear at the end of the 1940s...' He concludes that '[f]or some writers the passage to a new world and a new life involves the realisation of a richer and fuller life. For others, however, the long crossing has not lived up to its promise. The dream did not become reality and nostalgia triggers a sense of not belonging either to the past or to the present, a metaphysical wandering that cannot be fully resolved. While some poetry deals with the social realities of the diaspora, most provides perceptions of the thoughts and feelings that constitute the inner life of the migrant, the constant and ever-shifting appraisal of two different worlds and two different cultures in the attempt to demythologise and remythologise past and present in the light of new experiences.'