„Ed è subito sera“ is a poem by Salvatore Quasimodo. It is one of the shortest and most famous poems by the Sicilian poet. In this poem Quasimodo has captured three stages of human life: solitude, derived from incommunicability; alternation of joy and sorrow; sense of precariousness of life. Everyone, says the poet, while living among the others (the heart of the earth) feels strongly alone due to the inability to establish lasting relationships with someone. The poet
attributes the concept of solitude to the intimate moment in which an individual is in the search of the meaning of existence, or what allows man to overtake death. However, despite being alone, he is stimulated by the illusions (a ray of sunshine), in the search of happiness, sometimes apparent. This search is both joy and sorrow, „pierced“ and wounded by the same ray of sunshine. Meanwhile, as the daylight quickly follows to the night darkness, for man‘s life comes death: and it is suddenly evening.