The collection of Orphic Songs by Dino Campana is a very
confusing yet brilliant work. Throughout the pieces there is a reoccurring
theme of women as sexual images. Campana has two types of women that he has formulated
throughout his pieces, impure and pure. He uses symbolism to accentuate and
contrast the two counterparts. When he refers to women during the nighttime
they are “fat whores” in a “barbaric country.”(39) By indicating impure women
at night, he symbolizes darkness, evil, primitiveness, and seductiveness within
the women. When reading his poems it is clear that he looks upon these women
with disgust by the way he addresses them. During the day while in beautiful
places Campana describes pure women with a “virginal gait” and “grace.”(99) By
talking about women during the lightness of the day he represents them as
innocent and pure. Campana uses time of day to emphasize characteristics of
sexuality.
Your analysis makes a valid point. Campana does associate the purity of women with the time of day. Additionally, he links color with purity. In his poem "Blonde Ceres," he connects the lightness of her hair with purity and beauty when he says, "More pure is the light of silver in the sky / More beautiful your figure / . . . / Your figure more beautiful than blonde Ceres" (149). The brightness of her hair and of the sky evoke images of purity. In contrast, he associates dark colors with impurity. In "Whore with the Iron-Gray Eyes," he mentions the dark color of the prostitute's eyes in the title (111). He, also, draws attention to the difference between the darkness of her "black mane" and the lightness of "the profane blond angel" (111). Once again, he connects the shade of the color with purity, dark being impure and light being pure. Lastly, in "A Strange Little Gypsy," he writes about the immorality of a woman with "eyes too black" and "black curled" hair (97; 99). His technique of utilizing color to symbolize purity evokes the idea of evil as dark and goodness as light.
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