The "images" referred to are small plaster figurines ( statuine ) that many Italian emigrants, particularly from the Lucca region, sold on the streets of foreign cities to survive.
When the emigrants return to Italy, they bring these English phrases back with them, creating a jarring disconnect with the rural, traditional landscape of the Serchio Valley where the poem is set. Structural Role in the Poem 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 "images" referred to are small plaster figurines
Are you interested in a deeper of the "Italo-English" used in the poem, or Reading Giovanni Pascoli's "Italy": A Migration Perspective Pascoli uses this specific line as a rhythmic
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.
The poem uses this phrase to contrast the idealized "American Dream" with the reality of grueling street labor. The figure of the "figurinaio" (image-seller) becomes a symbol of the Italian migrant experience—selling pieces of their culture just to get by.