The poem ultimately portrays a bittersweet cycle: the emigrants leave "Bad Italy" for a better life, only to return with broken health and a broken language, crying out to their own kin to buy their cheap images.
Pascoli uses this specific line as a rhythmic anchor to emphasize the repetitive, transactional nature of the emigrant's life. It serves as a reminder that for the migrant, communication has been reduced to the bare essentials of commerce. buy images cheap
The line is written in a broken "Italo-English" (e.g., "Buy images, cheap" or "Cheap! Cheap!" ). This reflects the loss of the mother tongue and the adoption of a "bastardized" language that neither the Italians at home nor the Americans abroad fully embrace. The poem ultimately portrays a bittersweet cycle: the