La Basilicata nel Mondo (People from Basilicata in the World) was an illustrated monthly magazine produced by Giovanni Riviello in Naples, Italy. It was one of the mostly widely distributed Italian magazines abroad and regularly featured natives from the southern Italian region of Basilicata (also known by its ancient name Lucania) who were excelling in America.
It is exceptional that Jule Paterno was featured! A publication that featured Dr. Charles V. Paterno, Anthony Campagna (twice), Joseph Paterno, Charles/Joseph/Michael Paterno with Anthony Campagna for a banquet, and Michael/Joseph Paterno and Anthony Campagna with the Casa Italiana – all men – took the opportunity to feature a woman, who was born in Manhattan to an English father and Irish mother and married a Paterno. You can imagine my surprise when I discovered an image of the La Basilicata net Mondo cover in Professor Alberto Baldi’s book on my recent visit to Castelmezzano!
A gentle American poet
Mrs. Jule H. V. Paterno
As an exception, our first page, this time, bears a Lady’s portrait.
And the exception is all the greater and weightier because this Lady is not only foreign to Basilicata, but she is not even Italian-born, although the infinite and radiant lure historical and artistic Italy exercises on the mind of all cultured and high-bred human beings has fostered in her a particular cult for her husband’s great Mother-country, which she has travelled over, her whole soul enraptured by the divine wonders of our magnificent sky and of its incomparable beauty.
Of this Lady, so full of goodness and intellectuality that she forcibly remind us of those Florentine Women of whom Dante sang:
“Yon, who, understanding, the third heaven do move.”
Kind fate made the ideal companion of our fellow countryman Joseph Paterno of Castelmezzano, who, together with his brothers, has founded one of the most colossal building firms of New York, so that the sweet flower of poetry may bloom in the home of this audacious man, inflexible as steel in his temperament of a formidable fighter, and that it should fill for him with harmony the gaps of this great day battle, in the sanctuary of his domestic bliss.
This is one of the reasons why we hold Mrs. Jule Paterno in such high consideration. Another reason must be found in the radiance of her poetry.
Impassioned student of letters and philosophy, as Mrs. Jule Paterno is, her artistic dream might soar high, drawing inspiration from all the ideals of human progress, which she feels so exquisitely and unfolds so personally, through the wise selection of her vast and modern culture. She is not only a poet by inspiration, but a poet of concrete thought – a thing all the more worthy of admiration, because our other Women-poets – even the greatest of them – love better to dream than to think deeply, to compose rather than to create, contenting themselves with rendering their speech more melodious, and caring mostly for the brilliancy of imagery, with all the sweetest delicacy of form, and the finest charms of fantasy. This strength of thought comes to her from her love of study, which distinguishes her from the generality of the American gentlewomen, who love to spend their time amidst gaieties and worldly pleasure, while she prefers to delve down deep in books, finding there only her mind’s joy.
Mrs. Jule Paterno, as already stated, belong to that line of Women-poets who think deeply and lead their readers to do likewise. Hers is not poetry of form, it is creative poetry; and it is born – like a bubbling source of pure water – from the need which she feels in the deepest recesses of her instinctively artistic mind to express feelings which well up in her in an unforeseen and spontaneous way, from the direct sensation that strikes her imagination with Nature’s phenomena, or life’s happenings, a sensation which creates in her that lyrical fervor and that state of personal grace and easy emotion that are essential conditions for the creation of poetry.
“I am one who, when
Love prompts, listens: and thus
That which inwardly is said, I go explaining…”
The source of her inspiration is pure and self collected.
Her sweetness and feminine suavity interpret as an ever-new marvel, a flower’s, a star’s, a child’s dream. And when her Mother’s-love prompts her to bend over her children’s white cots, watching their innocent slumber, her art spreads its wings, her poetry is completed, and she then creates small poetical pictures of insuperable fineness and of latin purity.
The form is neat, clear, and fits completely and perfectly the idea that is thus imaged, little by little, under the watchful eyes of the poetess, who studies the birth of her thought in the light of art.
Her verses reveal to those who read them “with a loving mind” a talent and an inspiration truly remarkable. And though they call Keats to mind, on account of some ideal connections, which, however, are no derivations they impress one with an immediate sense of a beautiful effort for originality and show the trace of the hidden process of creation and working out of the poet’s mind who torments herself to reach that artistic perfectibility which is the hoped-for goal of all true artists. Above all Mrs. Jule Paterno has the merit of following a way of poetry all her own, revealing in it an exquisite and superior artistic personality.
We will add here some small samples of her poetry. Here is one: “Reflections.” And we call the attention of the reader on the keenness of its observations and on its philosophical intent:
Sometimes I write jingles
About those with whom I mingle
This time I think I’ll deviate
And try for pastures new –
A good thing to remember
As round about you go,
Do not think the quiet people
Are always so slow.
Then too, believe just half you see,
And nothing that you hear
Because when you have turned away
You can almost hear the others say
“Oh listen! I must tell you my dear
About Mr. So and So and Mrs. This and That…
How wonderful the world would be were it not for that fact.
And look how simple and fresh, how full of light this small picture of “Spring” is….
The birds are singing
The air is fresh and clear
My hearts is happy, dear,
And love is everywhere
Like the birth of a babe
In its pink and whiteness
God gives us spring
All filled with gladness.
After winter snows
Many ills and pills
Our heart rejoices
And the world is filled
With a desire to listen
For the voice of spring.
It seems to us that the poets of harsh rhetoric and of formal contortions have much to learn from this simplicity:
If thy lips
To my lips
Were tightly sealed
No pain too great
But could be healed
Nor sorrow too deep
When they arms enfold
It seems a pity
To barter for gold
A woman’s treasure
That keeps us going
From birth until we tire
Of life’s unending and many demands
There is always someone with outstretched hands
To bid us nestle our troubled head
On breast or shoulder
As the case may be.
I was meant for you, dear,
And you were meant for me.
As maternity is the feeling she most completely fathoms in her soul of Wife and Mother, so is it also the one she understand most perfectly in her poetry.
Mrs. Jule Paterno has two most lovely children: Joseph (Junior) – who in the family is lovingly and jokingly daubed June – and John (Jack).
On her children’s dreams, in her own dreams for their future, her poetry becomes animated with Woman’s loftiest passion, and is humanized in the sweetest and most touching way, crowning her Mother’s-love with a halo of sanctity, through which her own feeling interprets the feelings of the Mothers of the world, so that her poetry becomes universal.
Listen: “To June and Jack…
Two boys I know
Worth all the gold
In this great land of ours
How one can tell
Just at a glance
The love light in their eyes
When in I peep
Before they sleep
And take them by surprise.
“Oh! Mother dear…
I love to hear
As they both hold me close
I do not like braggadocio
But I can surely boast
Of happiness complete, divine
Even when it rains
It shines – I mean
The love light
In my boys’ brown eyes.
All absorbed in her mission of Wife and Mother, Mrs. Jule Paterno cultivates poetry only as a domestic virtue in the few moments she can spare for it – and, although she is very modest – as are all artists of real merit, and has not yet published a complete edition of her fine and beautiful string of precious poems, the attention of the best public of New York has been attracted toward this sweet and inspired Woman-Poet, by that part of her work which has been published in the American newspapers.
She loves to write most of her poems in that blessed green solitude of the enchanted Paradise called Palm Beach, on the shores of Florida, where she spends her winter “villeggiatura” (country holiday) every year. Only last year has she blossomed forth as a poet for New York’s public.
A true gentlewoman, proud and cultured like an Italian patrician Lady of the Renaissance, she surprised the guests she had invited to dinner, by placing at the cover of each of them a lovely card bearing a little poem she had written expressly and personally for each one, and dedicated to each of her guests. An act, this, that illustrates not only the marvelous quickness and flexibility of her mind and talent, that succeeded in finding adequate words, thought of beauty and newness for each friend, but also her innate good taste and the lordly delicacy of her hospitality.
We hope that she will collect all her verses in a book, which certainly must needs gather around Mrs. Jule Paterno the plaudits of all lovers of good and pure poetry. After having told, as best we could, of Mrs. Paterno’s poems and having sung her matchless virtues as Woman, Wife and Mother, we should also say something of her husband’s personality. But of Joseph Paterno, athlete of the building business of New York, we have had occasion of speaking ere this. Of him, who, more than anyone else succeeded in impersonating in a foreign land, the sturdy, constructive virtues of our Lucanian race, and has glorified them with his own elevation and with the nobility of his patriotism. We are proud to have already pointed him out to the admiration of our fellow countrymen and to all Italy.
He never ceases from the titanic battle of his life: Work, work, work, on an ever progressing scale – this is the reason of his very existence, and he spreads his energy in enterprises ever more genial and daring.
Among the new buildings which he intends erecting and is on the eve of starting, we point out to our readers an edifice of imposing size and noble architectural design which is to enrich the already magnificent Fifth Avenue, with an ultra-modern House-Hotel.
Here are the news which we are able to impart about this new marvel:
The edifice which is to rise at 825 Fifth Avenue shall be a new step towards the ever increasing growth of the residential life of New York City.
The growing popularity of the plan of House-Hotel and of the complete development – up to 100% of the cooperative ownership causes automatically another idea to blossom forth: i.e. the co-operative erection of a great hotel.
Every one knows that to successfully bring forth a new idea and persuade the world to accept it, needs the greatest perspicacity both in the forming of the project and in its execution.
Thus in thinking out the building at 825 Fifth Avenue, every smallest detail had to be deeply studied for months past by Joseph Paterno, and to day the project is ready to be launched forth and presented to the public, who cannot possibly but approve of it.
Its chosen situation if facing both the most beautiful street and Central Park as well, and is only a short distance from the very heart of the City. With its towers and its distinct architectural lines, this building will include every refinement that can be found only in the best houses. A tranquil atmosphere will surround it, making the place a most desirable residence.
Magnificent rooms and Offices-Help that will adequately attend to the needs of the resident, private halls, every thing will be there, and nothing, in fact, will be missing to render life comfortable from every standpoint. Next door to the dining-room, there will be a vast kitchen, splendidly appointed by expert hotel-men, and directly connected with a set of elevators, so that the most perfect service may be assured. The apartments are to be disposed differently one from the other and all will be richly fitted.
But the final success of every co-operative building depends on the expense. Will the price of every apartment be low enough, and yet offer all the conveniences?
Here is the answer: “Yes…Comparisons will show it. The builder, Paterno Brothers, who have a large experience, acquired in 20 years of building works ever new, intend to give a new measure of their capabilities in this enterprise. The architect is to be J.E.R. Carpenter who drafted many other edifices which have risen ton the East side of the Residential section. The agents entrusted with the direction and the sale are Messrs. Brown, Wheelock, Harris, Vought and Co, Inc..
The question of the service in the kitchen, of the preparation of the food and of the help for the dining rooms and the apartments, which is the base of the successful handling of all hotels, will, of course, require the greatest care from the directing group, who, naturally, intend employing an expert “Maitre d’Hotel” of indisputable ability and experience.
Other help, indispensable to the precise and orderly proceeding of the service, will also be selected with great care.
This house will offer the greatest advantages with an expenditure relatively much inferior to that of like abodes.
