In his old age Carducci declared that “his guiding principles had been three--in politics, Italy before all things; in art, classical poetry before all things; in life, sincerity and strength before all things.”[53] As he mellowed in his political opinions, so he became less vehement against the church and Christianity in later writings. In truth, it was not Christianity but asceticism and bigotry which he combated. Like many poets he regretted the loss of some of the best marks of pure paganism; he found in it truth and freedom, in contrast with many evidences of falsehood and slavery in the Christian world of his day. He did not always get a vision of life as a whole, only a segment which was sometimes distorted in perspective. He was more interested in historical and poetic figures than in creative types. Italy of the past and her classic literature were his ideals in his later writings. Rejecting romanticism as exotic, he pleaded for “the representation of reality with truth.” In summary of his aim and its fulfillment, Mr. Bickersteth has written with lucidity: “Carducci’s conception of reality, considered from the artistic point of view, controls his treatment of all the chief themes of his poetry, as will at once become apparent if we examine any of these at all closely. Man, Nature, Liberty, for instance--he held it incumbent upon the poets of his own time to deal mainly with these three, and they constitute accordingly a large portion of the subject-matter of his own verse.” It is difficult to identify the word idealism with much of Carducci’s poetry about women--for he was strongly realistic in his love poems, in general, often compared to Walt Whitman in his emphasis of the physical attractiveness of woman. Again, he too often failed in his efforts to adapt old Latin forms to modern themes and reflections. In spite of such defects, however, Carducci’s poetry at his best, his earnest patriotism and his hopes for Italy, reflects his country, says Mr. Bickersteth, “in her purest and serenest aspect, and her ideals linked on to many, if not all, the most cherished traditions of her past.”[54] FOOTNOTES: [45] Inscription with the Nobel Prize Award in Literature, 1907. [46] Found in original and translation in _Carducci: a Selection of His Poems_, etc. by G. L. Bickersteth, London, 1913, p. 141. [47] _Ibid._, p. 8. [48] _Italian Influences: Carducci and Dante_ by Eugene Schuyler, New York, 1901, p. 24. By permission of Charles Scribner’s Sons. [49] _Impressioni e ricordi_ by Chiarini, p. 237. [50] _Carducci: a Selection of His Poems_ by G. L. Bickersteth, Copyright by Longmans, Green & Co., London and New York, 1913. By permission of Longmans, Green & Co. [51] _Poems by Giosuè Carducci_: with an introduction and translations by Maud Holland, New York, 1907. [52] _Edinburgh Review_, April, 1909. By permission of Leonard Scott Publication Co. [53] _Ibid._, “The Poetry of Carducci.”