Sheltered by Enchantments

The journey of a teacher and her students in the footsteps of Dino Campana’s poetry, remembering the poet errant’s life and ‘fugitive destiny’. A literary trek requiring a remarkable level of physical, intellectual and above all creative effort, in which students work hard not only at walking, climbing, reading and writing, but also at being together in a responsible and respectful manner. The search follows the path traced by the poet from Marradi, his hometown, into the Tuscan mountains, calling back to life his most mature lyrical poem. As we delve into the deeper and most secret recesses of Campana’s poetry, the memory of the journey unfolds in the pages of a diary in which feeling and remembrance mix with the poet’s words, joining voices in one song. At the same time an example on how to teach and learn through passion: an educational way for all the teachers interested to involve their students into a deep learning using the poems and words of any author able to breed reflections and feelings.

“Picking up on some of the haunted, hallucinatory stillness familiar to readers of Campana’s work, and skilfully interlocking narrative strands that juxtapose a deeply-felt identification with the poet to pithy asides and comical episodes, Valeria Fraccari guides her students and her readers on a journey that develops into one of the most unusual – and least pretentious – communings with poetry I have ever read.” Simon Jenner, poet, essayist and music critic
"...it is magical, alive, a polyphony fleshed out by the rich poetic voices of the students and their bodily presence. A beautiful example of learning through passion, en plein air." Paolo Mottana, Caro insegnante. Amichevoli suggestioni per godere (l)a scuola, Milan: Franco Angeli, p. 92, note.