"This essay is on the ways in which confusions about the process and 
the concept known as assimilation appear to have affected the life of the 
esteemed poet, John Ciardi.."

I could not possibly do justice at any attempt to summarize this insightful
and penetrating attempt to analyze John Ciardi's perspective.

I make only the observations that (and perhaps in doing so advertise 
my ignorance) that John Ciardi was deeply conflicted by (1) "the Italian 
background was my first pasture, not where I went;" and was secondary 
to (2) "the process of looking inward for self-discovery." and (3) the 
powerful forces of Assimilation that "rode him like a jockey."

Mancuso concluded that one can detect the personal toll that resulted from 
Ciardi's confused attempts to abandon the orientations, values, and attitudes 
he had acquired during his childhood and youth in an Italian immigrant 
environment.. Ciardi failed to gain the kind of respect that his childhood 
environment had taught him was due to a father.  When he sensed that his 
esteem as a poet had diminished he worried about his work being "too 
Italo-American." In his last years, he became sarcastic and offensive to 
colleagues, so that they "construed his behavior toward students and other 
participants [at a conference] as intolerant, cruel, indefensibly harsh, 
personally antagonistic, abusive, and irascible."

It appears that Ciardi's conflicts, and his tortured and obviously unfufilled, 
and unsatisfactory attempt at self discovery took a mighty personal toll. 

Were these "personal demons" necessary to "His prodigious 
accomplishments, against the immense obstacles that he needed to 
circumvent, (and that) deserve the highest esteem that we can accord 
to another person." ? 

If in my attempt to simplify (perhaps "over") I have erred greviously, I will 
expect the appropriate corrections or admonishments, particulary from 
the author.

I have taken the further liberty of listing below what I considered section 
headings:

Introduction
Uncovering the Elements of Italian-American Influence in Ciardi's Work
From where came Ciardi's intense commitment to liberal 
    political ideologies?
Did Italian-American concepts of fatherhood influence Ciardi's 
    self-definitions? 
What would serve as Ciardi's rewards for his having assimilated? 
The Results of Having Struck the Dubious Bargain

http://www.capital.net/~mancusoj/ciardifr.html