Barbarian Odes

Barbarian Odes (Italian: Odi barbare) is a collection of three books of poetry by Giosuè Carducci, published between 1877 and 1889.

Carducci was a patriot and committed to the aspirations of the Risorgimento, the 19th-century movement to unify Italy; thus, there are in the Barbarian Odes poems in praise of Garibaldi and queen Margherita.

Most of the poems, however, are Classical in theme and even in style, as Carducci often uses forms and meter imitative of Latin poets such as Horace and Virgil.

An example from the Barbarian Odes and perhaps the one most familiar to Italians, in general, and Italian school children, in particular, is entitled Le fonti del Clitumno[2] ("The Head-waters of the Clitumnus"), a description of that spot in the hills of Umbria where the Clitunno River has its beginning.

It is generally considered one of Carducci's highest evocations of the Classical world, combining pastoral purity and nostalgia for the glories of ancient Italy.