Delio Tessa

Who was Delio Tessa?

Delio Tessa was an Italian poet from Milan. He is the most renowned writer in Milanese dialect after Carlo Porta. The originality of his poetry stands mostly in his expressionism and his satirical way to depict Death. His masterpiece is L'è el dì di Mort, alegher!. Stylistically, he uses massively "enjambements" and parentheticals; he mixes Milanese dialect with Italian and foreign languages such as French and English, making them rhyme, too.

An antifascist, he remained aloof from official culture, devoting himself to local sphere. Except the collection of poems L'è el dì di mort, alegher!, all his works have been published posthumously. The topics of his poetics are the drama of the World War I and of the daily life of neglects, revised in personal way and caring very much about the sonority of the lines. Often the topic of the dead women is present, with a pessimism and distrust of personal and cultural origin. The restlessness is reflected in the tension of the language, used like strongly fragmented popular language. He died in 1939 of abscess, and was buried, according to his will, in a common field of Musocco. However, in 1950 the Milanese Municipality transferred him to the Famedio, where other preeminent Milanese persons lie.