obscuro del salón, tal vez olvidada de su dueño_. Bécquer,
in his striving after complicated metrical arrangements,
often inverts the word-order in his verse. See also
_Introduction, Versification_, p. lxxii.
19. =arrancarlas=: =las= refers to =Cuánta nota=, which
seems to have here the force of a plural.
24. See _Introduction, Versification_, p. lxv.
=124.=--14. =intérvalo=: the standard form is _intervalo_.
=126.=--12. =El nicho á un extremo=: the meaning is, _one
end of the recess_, in which the coffin will be placed.
The graveyards of Spain and Spanish America have lofty
walls with niches or recesses large enough to contain
coffins. After receiving the coffin, the niche is sealed
with a slab that bears the epitaph of the deceased.
=128.=--The Valencian Vicente W. Querol (1836-1889) gave
most of his time to commerce, but he occasionally wrote
verses that had the merit of correctness of language and
strong feeling.
Cf. Blanco Garcia, II, 376-378. For his verses, see
_Rimas_ (_Prólogo_ by Pedro A. de Alarcón), 1877; _La
fiesta de Venus_, in the _Almanaque de la Ilustración_,
1878.
7. =Ó en el que= = _ó en el día en que_: the reference is
to the anniversaries of the wedding day and the saints'
days of the parents.
=129.=--19. =las que... son=, _what is..._
=131.=--15-16. =la que... agonía= = _la lenta agonía que
sufristeis..._
=133.=--Ramón de Campoamor y Campoosorio (1817-1901) was
born in Navia (Asturias). He studied medicine but soon
turned to poetry and politics. A pronounced conservative,
he won favor with the government and received appointment page 277
to several important offices including that of
governor of Alicante and Valencia.
Cf. _Introduction_, p. xli; Juan Valera, _Obras poéticas
de Campoamor_, in _Estudios críticos sobre literatura_,
Seville, 1884; Peseux-Richard, in the _Revue hispanique_,
I, 236 f.; Blanco García, II, Cap. V. For his works,
see _Doloras y cantares_, 16th ed., Madrid, 1882; _Los
pequeños poemas_, Madrid, 1882-1883; _Poética_, 1883; _El
drama universal_, 3d ed., Madrid, 1873; _El licenciado
Torralba_, Madrid, 1888; _Obras escogidas_, Leipzig,
1885-1886; _Obras completas_, 8 vols., Madrid, 1901-03.
=135.=--3. =se va y se viene y se está=: note the use of
=se= in the sense of _people_, or an indefinite _we_.
5. =Y... procura= = _y si tu afecto no procura volver_.
=136.=--18. See note, p. 3, l. 7.
=137.=--Valladolid was the birthplace of Gaspar Núñez de
Arce (1834-1903). When a child, he removed with his family
to Toledo. At the age of nineteen years he entered upon
a journalistic career in Madrid. As a member of the
Progresista party, Núñez de Arce was appointed Civil
Governor of Barcelona, and afterward he became a cabinet
minister.
Cf. _Introduction_, p. xlii; Menéndez y Pelayo's essay in
_Estudios de crítica literaria_, 1884; Juan Valera's essay
on the _Gritos del combate, Revista europea_, 1875, no.
60; Blanco García, Cap. XVIII; José del Castillo, _Núñez
de Arce, Apuntes para su biografía_, Madrid, 1904. For his
works, see _Gritos del combate_, 8th ed., 1891; _Obras
dramáticas_, Madrid, 1879. Most of his longer poems are in
separate pamphlets, published by M. Murillo and Fernando
Fe, Madrid, 1895-1904.
=137.=--=Tristezas= shows unmistakably the influence of
the French poet Alfred de Musset, and especially perhaps
of his _Rolla_ and _Confession d'un enfant du siècle_.
=138.=--16 f. Compare with the author's _La duda_ and
_Miserere_, and Bécquer's _La ajorca de oro_.
page 278
=142.=--1-3. The poet seems to compare the nineteenth
century, amidst the flames of furnaces and engines, to the
fallen archangel in hell.
16. =mística=, that is, of communion with God, heavenly.
=144.=--=¡Sursum Corda!=: the lines given are merely the
introduction to the poem, and form about one fourth of
the entire work. They were written soon after the
Spanish-American War. See _Sursum Corda!_, Madrid, 1904;
and also Juan Valera's _Florilegio_, IV, 413 f.
8. The plains of Old Castile may well be called "austere."
=145.=--10-16. Cf. _Á España_ (1860) and _Á Castelar_
(1873).
=147.=--11-19. There are few stronger lines than these in
all Spanish poetry.
=148.=--Manuel del Palacio (1832-1895) was born in Lérida.
His parents removed to Granada, and there he joined a
club of young men known as La Cuerda. Going to Madrid, he
devoted himself to journalism and politics, first as a
radical and later as a conservative.
Cf. Blanco Garcia, II, 40. For his works, see his
_Obras_, Madrid, 1884; _Veladas de otoño_, 1884; _Huelgas
diplomáticas_, 1887.
5. =el ave placentera=: a well-known Spanish-American poet
calls this a mere _ripio_ (stop-gap), and says it may mean
one bird as well as another.
The Catalan Joaquín María Bartrina (born at Reus in 1850)
published in 1876 a volume of pessimistic and iconoclastic
verses, entitled _Algo_. After his death (1880) his works
were published under the title of _Obras en prosa y verso,
escogidas y coleccionadas por J. Sardá_, Barcelona, 1881.
Cf. Blanco García, II, 349-350.
=148.=--15-19. These lines give expression to the
pessimism that has obtained in Spain for two centuries
past.
=149.=--14. The reference is, of course, to the paintings,
of which there are many, of "The Last Supper" of Jesus.
Manuel Reina (1860-) was born in Puente Genil. Like page 279
Bartrina, Reina is an imitator of Núñez de Arce, in
that he sings of the degeneracy of mankind. He undertook,
with but little success, to revive the eleven-syllable
_romance_ of the neo-classic Spanish tragedy of the
eighteenth century.
Cf. Blanco García, II, 354-355. For his verses, see
_Andantes y allegros_ and _Cromos y acuarelas, cantos
de nuestra época, con un prólogo de D. José Fernández
Bremón_.
The Valencian Teodoro Llorente (b. 1836) is best known for
his translations of the works of modern poets. He is also
the author of verses (_Amorosas_, _Versos de la juventud_,
_et al._).
=151=.--=Argentina.= The development of letters was slower
in Argentina than in Mexico, Peru and Colombia, since
Argentina was colonized and settled later than the others.
During the colonial period there was little literary
production in the territory now known as Argentina.
Only one work of this period deserves mention. This is
_Argentina y conquista del río de la Plata_, etc. (Lisbon,
1602), by Martín del Barco Centenera, a long work in poor
verses and of little historical value. During the first
decade of the nineteenth century there was an outpouring
of lyric verses in celebration of the defeat of the
English by the Spaniards at Buenos Aires, but to all of
these Gallego's ode _Á la defensa de Buenos Aires_ is
infinitely superior.
During the revolutionary period the best-known writers,
all of whom may be roughly classified as neo-classicists,
were: Vicente López Planes (1784-1856), author of the
Argentine national hymn; Esteban Luca (1786-1824); Juan C.
Lafinur (1797-1824); Juan Antonio Miralla (d. 1825); and,
lastly, the most eminent poet of this period, Juan Cruz
Varela (1794-1839), author of the dramas _Dido_ and
_Argía_, and of the ode _Triunfo de Ituzaingó_ (_Poesías_,
Buenos Aires, 1879).
The first Argentine poet of marked ability, and one of
the greatest that his country has produced, was the
romanticist (who introduced romanticism into Argentina
directly from France), Esteban Echeverría page 280
(1805-1851), author of _Los Consuelos_ (1834), _Rimas_
(1837) and _La cautiva_. The latter poem is distinctively
"American," as it is full of local color. Juan Valera, in
his letter to Rafael Obligado (_Cartas americanas, primera
serie_), says truly that Echeverría "marks the point of
departure of the Argentine national literature." (_Obras
completas_, 5 vols., Buenos Aires, 1870-74).
Other poets of the early period of independence are:
the literary critic, Juan María Gutiérrez (1809-1878),
one-time rector of the University of Buenos Aires and
editor of an anthology, _América poética_ (Valparaíso,
1846); Dr. Claudio Mamerto Cuenca (1812-1866; cf. _Obras
poéticas escogidas_, Paris, 1889); and José Mármol
(1818-1871), author of _El peregrino_ and of the best of
Argentine novels, _Amalia_ (_Obras poéticas y dramáticas,
coleccionadas por José Domingo Cortés_, 3d ed., Paris,
1905).
In parenthesis be it said that Argentina also claims as
her own the poet Ventura de la Vega (1807-1865), who
was born in Buenos Aires, as Mexico claims Juan Ruiz de
Alarcón, and as Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda is claimed
by Cuba.
As in Spain Ferdinand VII had driven into exile most of
the prominent writers of his period, so the despotic
president, Juan Manuel Rosas (1793-1877: fell from power
in 1852), drove from Argentina many men of letters,
including Varela, Echeverría and Mármol.
Down to the middle of the nineteenth century it may be
said that the Spanish-American writers followed closely
the literary movements of the mother country. Everywhere
across the sea there were imitators of Meléndez Valdés
and Cienfuegos, of Quintana, of Espronceda and
Zorrilla. During the early years of romanticism
some Spanish-American poets,--notably the Argentine
Echeverría,--turned for inspiration directly to the French
writers of the period; but, in the main, the Spanish
influence was predominant. The Spanish-American page 281
verses, for the most part, showed insufficient preparation
and were marred by many inaccuracies of diction; but
here and there a group of writers appeared,--as in
Colombia,--who rivaled in artistic excellence the poets of
Spain. In the second half of the nineteenth century the
Spanish-American writers became more independent in
thought and speech. It is true that many imitated the
mysticism of Bécquer or the pessimism of Núñez de Arce,
but many more turned for inspiration to native subjects
or to the literary works of other lands than Spain, and
particularly of France and Italy.
The extreme in local color was reached in the "_literatura
gauchesca_," which consists of collections of popular or
semi-popular ballads in the dialect of the _gauchos_, or
cowboys and "ranchers," of the Pampas. The best of
these collections,--_Martín Fierro_ (1872), by José
Fernández,--is more artistic than popular. This long
poem, which in its language reminds the English reader of
Lowell's _Biglow Papers_, is the best-known and the most
widely read work by an Argentine author.
The greatest Argentine poets of the second half of the
century have been Andrade and Obligado. Olegario Víctor
Andrade (1838-1882), the author of _Prometeo_ and
_Atlántida_, is generally recognized as one of the
foremost modern poets of Spanish America, and probably
the greatest poet that Argentina has as yet given to the
world. In art, Andrade was a disciple of Victor Hugo;
in philosophy, he was a believer in modern progress and
freedom of thought; but above all else was his loyal
patriotism to Argentina. Andrade's verses have inspiration
and enthusiasm, but they are too didactic and they are
marred by occasional incorrectness of speech. _Atlantida_,
a hymn to the future of the Latin race in America, is
the poet's last and noblest work (_Obras_, Buenos Aires,
1887).
It is said of Rafael Obligado (1852-) that he is more page 282
elegant and correct than Andrade, but his muse
has less inspiration. He has, moreover, the distinction of
showing almost no French influence, which is rare to-day
among Spanish-American writers. Juan Valera regrets
Obligado's excessive "Americanism," and laments the fact
that the poet uses many words of local origin that he,
Valera, does not understand. The poet's better works are,
for the most part, descriptions of the beauties of nature
or the legendary tales of his native land (_Poesías_,
Buenos Aires, 1885).
Among recent poets, two have especially distinguished
themselves. Leopoldo Díaz (1868-) began as a disciple of
Heredia, and has become a pronounced Hellenist, now a rare
phenomenon in Spanish America. Besides many sonnets
imbued with classicism, he has written odes to the
_conquistadores_ and to _Atlántida conquistada_. Like
Darío, Blanco-Fombona and many other Spanish-American
poets of to-day, Diaz resides in Europe; but, unlike the
others, he lives in Morges instead of Paris (_Sonetos_,
Buenos Aires, 1888; _Bajo-relieves_, Buenos Aires, 1895;
_et al._). A complete "_modernista_" (he would probably
scorn the title of "decadent") is Leopoldo Lugones
(1875?-), whose earlier verses are steeped in an erotic
sensualism rare in the works of Spanish-American poets.
He seeks to be original and writes verses on every
conceivable theme and in all kinds of metrical
arrangements. Thus, in _Lunario sentimental_ there are
verses, essays and dramatic sketches, all addressed to
the moon. For an example of his _versos libres_, see
_Introduction_ to this volume, p. xlvi (_Las montañas de
oro, Los crepúsculos del jardín_; _Lunario sentimental_,
Buenos Aires, 1909; _Odas seculares_, Buenos Aires, 1910).
For studies of Argentine literature, see Blanco García,
_Hist. Lit. Esp._, III, pp. 380 f.; Menéndez y Pelayo,
_Ant. Poetas Hisp.-Am._, IV, pp. lxxxix f.; Juan Valera,
_Poesía argentina_, in _Cartas americanas, primera serie_,
Madrid, 1889, pp. 51-119; _Literatura argentina_, page 283
Buenos Aires, 1903; _Poetas argentinos_, Buenos Aires,
1904; _Antología argentina_, B.T. Martínez, Buenos Aires,
1890-91; _Compendio de literatura argentina_, E. Alonso
Criado, Buenos Aires, 1908; _Miscelánea_, by Santiago
Estrada; _La lira argentina_, Buenos Aires, 1824. Other
important works, treating of Spanish-American literature,
are: _Biblioteca hispano-americana_ (1493-1810), José
Toribio Medina, 6 vols., Santiago de Chile, 1898-1902;
_Bibliography of Spanish-American Literature_, Alfred
Coester, _Romanic Review_, III, 1; _Escritores
hispano-americanos_, Manuel Cañete, Madrid, 1884;
_Escritores y poetas sud-americanos_, Francisco Sosa,
Mex., 1890; _Juicio crítico de poetas hispano-americanos_,
M.L. Amunátegui, Santiago de Chile, 1861; _La joven
literatura hispano-americana_, Manuel Ugarte, Paris, 1906.
Echeverría: see preceding note.
=Canción de Elvira.= This Gutiérrez calls the "song of the
American Ophelia."
=152.=--Andrade: see note to p. 151.
18. =Á celebrar las bodas=, _to be the bride_.
=153.=--3. The Argentines, especially, seem to take
delight in calling themselves a Latin, rather than a
Spanish, race. This may be due to the fact that fully one
third of the population of Argentine is Italian. Both Juan
Valera and Menéndez y Pelayo have chided the Argentines
for speaking of themselves as a _raza latino-americana_,
instead of _hispano-americana_.
15. =arcano=, _secret_, seems to have the force here of a
_secret ark_, or _secret sanctuary_, which is broken open
that its secrets may be disclosed.
=154.=--6-10. These lines refer, of course, to the
Christian religion, spoken of symbolically as an _altar_,
which has replaced the heterogeneous pagan cults of
ancient Rome, and which the Spaniards first brought to
America.
page 284
11. =ciclopeas=: note the omission of the accent on _o_
that the word may rime with =ideas=.
=155.=--5. =Tequendama=: see in the _Vocab_. Several
Colombian poets, including Don José Joaquín Ortiz and
Doña Agripina Montes del Valle, have written odes to this
famous waterfall. See Menéndez y Pelayo, _Ant. Poetas
Hisp.-Am._, II; and _Parnaso colombiano_, II, Bogotá,
1887.
17-18. A revolutionary hero, Antonio Ricaurte (b. 1786),
blew up the Spanish powder magazine on the summit of a
hill near San Mateo, and lost his life in the explosion.
See =Mateo= in _Vocab_.
=156.=--5. The colors of the Peruvian flag are red
and white, mainly red. The red,--symbolical of
bloodshed,--shall be largely replaced by the golden color
of ripening grain,--symbolical of industry.
8. Caracas, where Bolivar was born, lies at the foot of
Mount Ávila.
11. This line, and line 16, would indicate that
=Atlántida= was written soon after the war, begun in 1876,
between Chile and the allied forces of Bolivia and Peru,
in which Chile was victorious.
12-15. When this was written there was little immediate
prospect of other railways than the narrow-gage road from
Oruro to the Chilean frontier, about five hundred miles in
length; but now Bolivia has the promise of becoming the
railway center of lines connecting both Argentina and
Chile with Peru. These lines are now completed or
building.
27. Andrade died in 1882, and seven years after his death,
in 1889, the emperor Dom Pedro II was deposed, and a
republican form of government was adopted by Brazil.
=157.=--3. Andrade now sings of his own country, hence
=¡De pie para cantarla!=
8. There is a larger immigration of Europeans into
Argentina than into any other South-American country. The page 285
immigrants come mostly from northern Italy and
from Spain.
12-16. As the =Atlántida= was the last poetic work of
Andrade, these lines may refer to the treaty of 1881
between Argentina and Chile, by which Argentina acquired
all the territory east of the Andes, including Patagonia
and the eastern part of Tierra del Fuego.
By the conquest and settlement of the broad plains
(_pampas_) and the frozen region of the south, a new world
was created, much as in the United States of America a new
world was created by the acquirement and settlement of the
western plains, mountain lands and Pacific coast.
21. Vast areas in Argentina are given over to the
cultivation of wheat, barley and oats.
=159.=--These are the last stanzas of =Prometeo=, a poem
in which the author addresses the human mind and urges
it to break its bonds and free itself from tyranny and
prejudice: see also in _Vocab_.
=160.=--Obligado: see note to p. 151.
=162.=--=Colombia.= Colombia was formerly known as Nueva
Granada, and its inhabitants are still sometimes called
_Granadinos_. An older and larger Colombia was organized
in 1819, toward the close of the revolutionary war; but
this state was later divided into three independent
countries, viz., Venezuela, Nueva Granada and Ecuador. In
1861 Nueva Granada assumed the name of Estados Unidos de
Colombia, and only recently the Colombian part of the
Isthmus of Panama established itself as an independent
republic. The present Colombia has, therefore, only about
one third the area of the older state of the same name. In
treating of literature, the terms Colombia and Colombian
are restricted to the present-day Colombia and the older
Nueva Granada. The capital of the Republic is Santa Fe de
Bogotá, to-day generally known simply as Bogotá. It is at
an elevation of 8700 feet above the level of the page 286
sea, and has a cool and equable climate.
It is generally conceded that the literary production of
Colombia has excelled that of any other Spanish-American
country. Menéndez y Pelayo (_Ant. Poetas Hisp.-Am._,
III, _Introd._) speaks of Bogotá as the "Athens of South
America," and says further: "the Colombian Parnassus
to-day excels in quality, if not in quantity, that of any
other region of the New World." And Juan Valera in his
_Cartas americanas (primera serie_, p. 121 f.) says: "Of
all the people of South America the Bogotanos are the most
devoted to letters, sciences and arts"; and again: "In
spite of the extraordinary ease with which verses are
made in Colombia, and although Colombia is a democratic
republic, her poetry is aristocratic, cultivated and
ornate." Blanco García characterizes Colombia as one of
the most Spanish of American countries.
During the colonial period, however, Nueva Granada
produced few literary works. Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada,
the _conquistador_ of New Granada, wrote memoirs, entitled
_Ratos de Suesca_ (1573?), of little historical value. The
most important work of the period is the chronicles in
verse of Juan de Castellanos (b. 1522? in the Spanish
province of Seville). This work is largely epic in
character; and, with its 150,000 lines, it is the longest
poem in the Spanish language. Though for the most part
prosaic and inexact, yet it has some passages of high
poetic worth, and it throws much light on the lives of the
early colonists. The first three parts of the poem, under
the title of _Elegías de varones ilustres de Indias_ (the
first part only was published in 1589), occupies all of
vol. IV of the _Bibl. de Aut. Esp._ The fourth part is
contained in two volumes of the _Colección de Escritores
Castellanos_, under the title of _Historia del Nuevo Reino
de Granada_.
In the seventeenth century the colonists were still too
busy with the conquest and settlement of the country to
spare time for the cultivation of letters. A long page 287
epic poem, the _Poema heroico de San Ignacio de Loyola_,
with much Gongorism and little merit, was published
at Madrid in 1696, after the death of the author, the
Colombian Hernando Domínguez Camargo. A few short lyrics
by the same author also appeared in the _Ramillete de
varias flores poéticas_ (Madrid, 1676) of Jacinto Evia of
Ecuador.
Early in the eighteenth century Sor Francisca Josefa de la
Concepción, "Madre Castillo" (d. 1742), wrote an account
of her life and her _Sentimientos espirituales_, in which
there is much of the mysticism of Saint Theresa.
About 1738 the printing-press was brought to Bogotá by
the Jesuits, and after this date there was an important
intellectual awakening. Many colleges and universities
had already been founded,--the first in 1554. The
distinguished Spanish botanist José Celestino Mutis, in
1762, took the chair of mathematics and astronomy in the
Colegio del Rosario, and under him were trained many
scientists, including Francisco José de Caldas. An
astronomical observatory was established, the first in
America. In 1777 a public library was organized, and a
theater in 1794. And of great influence was the visit of
Humboldt in 1801. Among the works published in the second
half of the eighteenth century mention should be made
of the _Lamentaciones de Pubén_ by the canon José María
Grueso (1779-1835) and _El placer público de Santa Fe_
(Bogotá, 1804) by José María Salazar (1785-1828).
During the revolutionary period two poets stand
preeminent. Dr. José Fernández Madrid (d. 1830) was a
physician and statesman, and for a short time president
of the Republic. His lyrics are largely the expression of
admiration for Bolivar and of hatred toward Spain: his
verses are usually sonorous and correct (_Poesías_,
Havana, 1822; London, 1828). The "Chénier" of Colombia was
Luis Vargas Tejada (1802-1829), the author of patriotic
verses, some of which were directed against page 288
Bolivar, and of neo-classic tragedies. He died by drowning
at the age of twenty-seven (_Poesías_, Bogotá, 1855).
The four most noted poets of Colombia are J.E. Caro,
Arboleda, Ortiz and Gutiérrez González. A forceful lyric
poet was José Eusebio Caro (1817-1853), a philosopher
and statesman, a man of moral greatness and a devout
Christian. In the bloody political struggles of his day he
sacrificed his estate and his life to his conception of
right. He sang of God, love, liberty and nature with
exaltation; but all his writings evince long meditation.
Like many Spanish-American poets of his day Caro was
influenced by Byron. In his earlier verses he had imitated
the style of Quintana (cf. _El ciprés_); but later, under
the influence of romantic poets, he attempted to introduce
into Spanish prosody new metrical forms. Probably as a
result of reading English poetry, he wrote verses of 8
and 11 syllables with regular alternation of stressed and
unstressed syllables, which is rare in Spanish. So fond
did he become of lines with regular binary movement
throughout that he recast several of his earlier verses
(_Obras escogidas_, Bogotá, 1873; _Poesías_, Madrid,
1885).