Giacomo Leopardi's early 19th-century poem "The Infinite," like H.D.'s "Lethe," treats the temptation to overcome the challenges of the human condition by sinking into the sweetness of oblivion. Much like the speaker in "Lethe," who describes the natural beauty and human contact that calls to us but that cannot compete with the pull of oblivion, the speaker of "The Infinite" describes the overwhelming quality of sitting surrounded by nature's vastness. Both speakers ultimately long for or welcome respite from absorbing such unfathomable and poignant sensation—ultimately preferring to "drown," "shipwreck" or become consumed by "the roll of the full tide":
L'Infinito
Always dear to me was this lonely hill,
And this hedge, which from me so great a part
Of the farthest horizon excludes the gaze.
But as I sit and watch, I invent in my mind
endless spaces beyond, and superhuman
silences, and profoundest quiet;
wherefore my heart
almost loses itself in fear. And as I hear the wind
rustle through these plants, I compare
that infinite silence to this voice:
and I recall to mind eternity,
And the dead seasons, and the one present
And alive, and the sound of it. So in this
Immensity my thinking drowns:
And to shipwreck is sweet for me in this sea.
Interestingly, both poems use the metaphor of water to illuminate this longing to stop thinking, feeling, or navigating. Psychoanalysis, with which H.D. was familiar, often described water as a symbol for the human unconscious. Within this conception, the water, though a dangerous force on a concrete level, symbolizes the comfort of the defenses that push unbearable thoughts and feelings into the realm of the unknown. The water drowns or covers the parts of us that are too raw, vivacious, or searing to withstand.
Leopardi came before Freud, but by the time of H.D., psychoanalysis was well established. Regardless, one can observe that both poets understand water as embodying a kind of relinquishing, numbness, or release from the overstimulation of the human situation. The natural imagery in both poems serves an important purpose. The vibrant, evocative scenes show how much beauty and awe the speakers fantasize about giving up, to feel some relief from their own minds.
Lethe
Nor skin nor hide nor fleece
Shall cover you,
Nor curtain of crimson nor fine
Shelter of cedar-wood be over you,
Nor the fir-tree
Nor the pine.
Nor sight of whin nor gorse
Nor river-yew,
Nor fragrance of flowering bush,
Nor wailing of reed-bird to waken you,
Nor of linnet,
Nor of thrush.
Nor word nor touch nor sight
Of lover, you
Shall long through the night but for this:
The roll of the full tide to cover you
Without question,
Without kiss.
Also worth noting is the marked difference between the romantic detail and drama of Leopardi's poem, which provides a generous window into the speaker's mind, and the enigmatic simplicity of H.D.'s "Lethe," which leaves the reader to imagine the contours of a longing to become submerged. However, both works gesture beautifully to the desire for an end to curiosity, doubt, wonder, or sensation: "Without question / Without kiss" in "Lethe," and "So in this / Immensity my thinking drowns / And to shipwreck is sweet" in "The Infinite." An underlying irony of both poems is that to write or read a poem is to feel, to access, to process, to live—a very different kind of catharsis than oblivion. Perhaps simply to ponder or pine for such oblivion through poetry is comfort enough.
