Hisp.-Amer._, I, p. xiv f.: Blanco García, III, 304
f.; Francisco Pimentel, _Historia crítica de la page 313
poesía en México_, Mex., 1892; _Biblioteca
hispano-americana septentrional_, D. José Mariano
Beristain de Souza, Mex., 1816-21, 3 vols. (has more
than 4000 titles),--reprinted by Fortino Hipólito de
Vera, Amecameca, 1883; _Bibliografía mexicana del
siglo XVI (catálogo razonado de los libros impresos
in México de 1539 á 1600)_; _Biografías de mexicanos
distinguidos_, D. Francisco Sosa, Mex., 1884; _Poetas
yucatecos y tabasqueños_, D. Manuel Sánchez Mármol y
D. Alonso de Regil y Peón, Mérida de Yucatán, 1861;
_Poetisas mexicanas_, Bogotá, 1889; _Colección
de poesias mexicanas_, Paris, 1836; _El parnaso
mexicano_, 36 vols., R.B. Ortega, Mex., 1886;
_Biblioteca de autores mexicanos_, some 75 vols. to
1911, Mex.; _Antología de poetas mexicanos_, publ. by
Acad. Mex., Mex., 1894; _Poetas mexicanos_, Carlos
G. Amézaga, Buenos Aires, 1896; _Los trovadores de
México_, Barcelona, 1900.
Pesado: see preceding note.
=La Serenata=: see _Introduction, Versification_, p.
lxviii.
=200.=--6-11. These lines of Pesado are similar to those
found in the first stanzas of _Su alma_ by Milanés. See
Hills' _Bardos cubanos_ (Boston, 1901), p. 69.
Calderón: see note to p. 199.
=202.=--Acuña: see note to p. 199.
=204.=--15. The language is obscure, but the meaning seems
to be: _borrarte (á ti que estás) en mis recuerdos_.
19. The forced synalepha of =yo haga= is discordant and
incorrect.
=204.=--23 to =205.=--8. That is, when the altar was ready
for the marriage ceremony, and the home awaited the bride.
The reference, apparently, is to a marriage at an early
hour in the morning,--a favored time for marriages in
Spanish lands.
=208.=--1. =la alma=, by poetic license, since _el alma_
would make the line too long by one syllable.
=207.=--Peza: see note to p. 199.
=211.=--Darío: with the appearance in 1888 of a small
volume of prose and verse entitled _Azul_, by Rubén Darío
(1864-) of Nicaragua, there triumphed in Spanish America
the "movement of emancipation," the "literary page 314
revolution," which the "decadents" had already initiated
in France. As romanticism had been a revolt against the
empty formalism of later neo-classicism, so "decadence"
was a reaction against the hard, marmoreal forms of the
"Parnasse," and in its train there came inevitably a
general attack on poetic traditions. This movement was
hailed with joy by the young men of Latin America, who are
by nature more emotional and who live in a more voluptuous
environment than their cousins in Spain; for they had come
to chafe at the coldness of contemporary Spanish poetry,
at its lack of color and its "petrified metrical forms."
With the success of the movement there was for a time a
reign of license, when poet vied with poet in defying the
time-honored rules, not only of versification, but also
of vocabulary and syntax. But as in France, so in Spanish
America, "decadence" has had its day, although traces of
its passing are everywhere in evidence, and the best that
was in it still lingers.
To-day the Spanish-American poets are turning their
attention more and more to the study of sociological
problems or to the cementing of racial solidarity. These
notes ring clear in some recent poems of Darío, and of
José S. Chocano of Peru and Rufino Blanco-Fombona of
Venezuela. The lines given in the text are an ode which
was addressed to Mr. Roosevelt when he was president of
the United States from 1901 to 1909. The meter of the poem
is mainly the Old Spanish Alexandrine, but with a curious
intermingling of lines of nine, ten and eight syllables,
and with assonance of the even lines throughout. In all
fairness it should be stated here that Señor Darío, in a
recent letter to the writer of these _Notes_, said: "I
do not think to-day as I did when I wrote those verses"
(Darío: _Epístolas y poemas_, 1885; _Abrojos_, 1887;
_Azul_, 1888; _Cantos de vida y esperanza_, Madrid, 1905;
_El canto errante_, Madrid, 1907).
page 315
=212.=--8. Argentina and Chile are the most progressive of
the Spanish-American States. The Argentine flag is blue
and white, with a _sun_ in the center; the flag of Chile
has a white and a red bar, and in one corner a white
_star_ on a blue background.
11. This refers, of course, to the colossal bronze Statue
of Liberty by the French sculptor, Frédéric Bartholdi,
which stands in New York harbor.
14. In a letter to the writer of these _Notes_, Senor
Darío explains this passage as follows: "Bacchus, or
Dionysius, after the conquest of India (I refer to the
semi-historical and not to the mythological Bacchus) is
supposed to have gone to other and unknown countries. I
imagine that those unknown countries were America. Pan,
who accompanied Bacchus on his journey, taught those new
men the alphabet. All this is related to the tradition
of the arrival of bearded men, strangely dressed, in the
American countries.... These traditions exist in the South
as well as the North."
16. =Que consultó los astros=: the ancient Peruvians and
Mexicans had made considerable progress in the study of
astronomy.
=214.=--=Venezuela.= During the colonial period the
development of literary culture was slower in the
Capitanía de Caracas than in Colombia, Peru and Mexico.
The Colegio de Santa Rosa, which was founded at Caracas in
1696, was made a university in 1721. Not till 1806 was the
first printing-press set up in the colony.
Poetry in Venezuela begins with Bello, for the works
of his predecessors had little merit. Andrés Bello
(1781-1865) was the most consummate master of poetic
diction among Spanish-American poets, although he lacked
the brilliancy of Olmedo and the spontaneity of Heredia.
Born in Caracas and educated in the schools of his native
city, Bello was sent to England in the year 1810 to
further the cause of the revolution, and he remained in
that country till 1829, when he was called to page 316
Chile to take service in the Department of Foreign
Affairs. His life may, therefore, be divided into three
distinct periods. In Caracas he studied chiefly the Latin
and Spanish classics and the elements of international
law, and he made metrical translations of Virgil and
Horace. Upon arriving in England at the age of twenty-nine
years, he gave himself with enthusiasm to the study of
Greek, Italian and French, as well as to English. Bello
joined with the Spanish and Hispano-American scholars in
London in the publication of several literary reviews,
notably the _Censor americano_ (1820), the _Biblioteca
americana_ (1823) and the _Repertorio americano_
(1826-27), and in these he published many of his most
important works. Here appeared his studies of Old French
and of the _Song of My Cid_, his excellent translation of
fourteen cantos of Boiardo's _Orlando innamorato_, several
important articles on Spanish syntax and prosody, and the
best of all his poems, the _Silvas americanas_.
In 1829, when already forty-eight years of age, Bello
removed to Chile, and there entered upon the happiest
period of his life. Besides working in a government
office, he gave private lessons until in 1831 he was made
rector of the College of Santiago. In the year 1843 the
University of Chile was established at Santiago and Bello
became its first rector. He held this important post
till his death twenty-two years later at the ripe age of
eighty-four. During this third and last period of his life
Bello completed and published his _Spanish Grammar_ and
his _Principles of International Law_, works which, with
occasional slight revisions, have been used as standard
text-books in Spanish America and to some extent in Spain,
to the present day. The _Grammar_, especially, has been
extraordinarily successful, and the edition with notes by
José Rufino Cuervo is still the best text-book of Spanish
grammar we have. In the _Grammar_ Bello sought to free
Castilian from Latin terminology; but he desired, most of
all, to correct the abuses so common to writers page 317
of the period and to establish linguistic unity in Spanish
America.
Bello wrote little original verse during these last years
of his life. At one time he became exceedingly fond
of Victor Hugo and even tried to imitate him; but his
classical training and methodical habits made success
impossible. His best poetic work during his residence in
Chile, however, are translations of Victor Hugo, and his
free metrical rendering of _La Prière pour tous_ (from
the _Feuilles d'automne_), is amongst his finest and most
popular verses.
It is interesting that Andrés Bello, the foremost
of Spanish-American scholars in linguistics and in
international law, should also have been a preëminent
poet, and yet all critics, except possibly a few of the
present-day "_modernistas_," place his _American Silvas_
amongst the best poetic compositions of all Spanish
America. The _Silvas_ are two in number: the _Alocución
á la poesía_ and the _Silva á la agricultura de la zona
tórrida_. The first is fragmentary: apparently the poet
despaired of completing it, and he embodied in the second
poem an elaboration of those passages of the first work
which describe nature in the tropics. The _Silvas_ are in
some degree imitations of Virgil's _Georgics_, and they
are the best of Spanish imitations. Menéndez y Pelayo, who
is not too fond of American poets, is willing to admit
(_Ant._, II, p. cxlii) that Bello is, "in descriptive and
Georgic verse, the most Virgilian of our (Spanish) poets."
Caro, in his splendid biography of Bello (in Miguel
Antonio Caro's introduction to the _Poesías de Andrés
Bello_, Madrid, 1882) classifies the _Silvas_ as
"scientific poetry," which is quite true if this sort of
poetry gives an esthetic conception of nature, expressed
in beautiful terms and adorned with descriptions of
natural objects. It is less true of the _Alocución_, which
is largely historical, in that it introduces and sings
the praises of towns and persons that won fame in the
revolutionary wars. The _Silva á la agricultura_, page 318
which is both descriptive and moral, may be best described
in the words of Caro. It is, says this distinguished
critic, "an account of the beauty and wealth of nature in
the tropics, and an exhortation to those who live in
the equator that, instead of wasting their strength in
political and domestic dissensions, they should devote
themselves to agricultural pursuits." Bello's interest
in nature had doubtless been stimulated by the coming of
Humboldt to Caracas in the first decade of the nineteenth
century. In his attempt to express his feeling for nature
in poetic terms, he probably felt the influence not only
of Virgil, but also of Arriaza, and of the several poems
descriptive of nature written in Latin by Jesuit priests,
such as the once famous _Rusticatio Mexicana_ by Father
Landivar of Guatemala. And yet there is very little in
the _Silvas_ that is directly imitative. The _Silva á
la agricultura de la zona tórrida_, especially, is an
extraordinarily successful attempt to give expression in
Virgilian terms to the exotic life of the tropics, and in
this it is unique in Spanish literature. The beautiful
descriptive passages in this poem, the noble ethical
precepts and the severely pure diction combine to make
it a classic that will long hold an honored place in
Spanish-American letters (_Obras completas_, Santiago de
Chile, 1881-93).
During the revolutionary period the most distinguished
poets, after Bello, of that part of the greater Colombia
which later formed the separate republic of Venezuela,
were Baralt and Ros de Olano. Rafael María Baralt
(1810-1860) took part in the revolutionary movement of
secession from the first Colombia; but later he removed to
Spain and became a Spanish citizen. His verses are usually
correct, but lack feeling. He is best known as a historian
and maker of dictionaries. Baralt was elected to
membership in the Spanish Academy (_Poesías_, Paris,
1888).
General Antonio Ros de Olano (1802-1887) also removed to page 319
Spain and won high rank in the Spanish army. He
joined the romantic movement and became a follower of
Espronceda. Besides a volume of verses (_Poesías_, Madrid,
1886), Ros de Olano wrote _El doctor Lañuela_ (1863) and
other novels. Both Baralt and Ros de Olano were identified
with literary movements in Spain rather than in Venezuela.
José Heriberto García de Quevedo (1819-1871) was a
cultivated and ambitious scholar who collaborated with
Zorrilla in _María_, _Ira de Dios_ and _Un cuento
de amores_. Among his better works are the three
philosophical poems: _Delirium_, _La segunda vida_ and _El
proscrito_ (_Obras poéticas y literarias_, Paris, 1863).
Among the lesser writers of this period are Antonio Maitín
(1804-1874), the best of Venezuelan romanticists (cf. _El
canto fúnebre_, a poem of domestic love); Abigail Lozano
(1821-1866), a romanticist and author of musical but
empty verses ("_versos altisonantes_"); José Ramón Yepes
(1822-1881), an army officer and the author of legends
in verse, besides the inevitable _Poesías_; Eloy Escobar
(1824-1889), an elegiac poet; and Francisco G. Pardo
(1829-1872), a mediocre imitator of Zorrilla.
Next to Bello alone, the most distinguished poet of
Venezuela is José Pérez Bonalde (1846-1892), who was a
good German scholar and left, besides his original verses,
excellent translations of German poets. His metrical
versions of Heine, especially, exerted considerable
influence over the growth of literary feeling in Spanish
America (_Estrofas_, N.Y., 1877; _El poema del Niágara_,
N.Y., 1880). At least two other writers of the second half
of the nineteenth century deserve mention: Miguel Sánchez
Pesquera and Jacinto Gutiérrez Coll.
Among the present-day writers of Venezuela, Luis López
Méndez was one of the first to introduce into Spanish
America a knowledge of the philosophy and metrical
theories of Paul Verlaine. Manuel Díaz Rodríguez
(1868-___) has written little verse; but he is the best
known Venezuelan novelist of to-day [_Sangre page 320
patricia, Camino de perfección_ (essays), _Ídolos rotos_,
_Cuentos_, 2 vols., _Confidencias de Psiquis_, _Cuentos de
color_, _Sensaciones de viaje_, _De mis romerías_].
The most influential of the younger writers is Rufino
Blanco-Fombona, who was expelled from his native country
by the present _andino_ ("mountaineer") government and now
lives in exile in Paris. At first a disciple of Musset
and then of Heine and Maupassant, he is now an admirer
of Darío and a pronounced _modernista_. His _Letras y
letrados de Hispano-America_ is the best recent work
of literary criticism by a Spanish-American author.
Blanco-Fombona is a singer of youthful ambition, force and
robust love. His verses have rich coloring, but are
at times erotic or lacking in restraint (prose works:
_Cuentos de poeta_, Maracaibo, 1900; _Más allá de los
horizontes_, Madrid, 1903; _Cuentos americanos_, Madrid,
1904; _El hombre de hierro_, Caracas, 1907; _Letras
y letrados de Hispano-America_, Paris, 1908. Verses:
_Patria_, Caracas, 1895; _Trovadores y trovas_, Caracas,
1899; _Pequeña ópera lírica_, Madrid, 1904; _Cantos de la
prisión_, Paris, 1911).
References: Menéndez y Pelayo, _Ant. Poetas
Hisp.-Amer._, II, p. cx f.; Blanco García, III, p. 321
f.; _Reseña histórica de la literatura venezolana_
(1888) and _Estado actual de la literatura en
Venezuela_ (1892), both by Julio Calcaño, Caracas; _La
literatura venezolana en el siglo XIX_, Gonzalo Picón
Febres, Caracas, 1906; _Parnaso venezolano_, 12
vols., Julio Calcaño, Caracas, 1892; _Biblioteca de
escritores venezolanos_, José María Rojas, Paris,
1875; _Parnaso venezolano_, Barcelona, 1906.
Bello: see preceding note.
1. The _Lion_ symbolizes Spain, since from the medieval
kingdom of Leon modern Spain sprang. The battle of Bailén
(see in _Vocab._) took place in 1808 when Bello was
twenty-seven years of age and still loyal to Spain.
=214.=--16 to =215.=--3. =Que... concibes= = _que
circunscribes el vago curso_ =al= _(= del) sol enamorado,
y (tú), acariciada de su luz, concibes_ =cuanto page 321
ser= (= every being that) _se anima en cada vario clima._
18. The use of =quien= referring to inanimate objects is
now archaic.
=216.=--19 to =217.=--3. It is said that the banana gives
nourishment to more human beings than does any other
plant. The fruit is taken when it is still green, before
the starch has turned to sugar, and it is boiled, or
baked, or it is ground and made into a coarse bread.
6-8. =En que... bondadosa!= = _en que (la) naturaleza
bondadosa quiso hacer reseña de sus favores..._
9. The student should compare this and the following lines
with _Vida retirada_ by Fray Luis de León, p. 9.
19. The rime requires =habita=, instead of _habitad_.
22-23. =Y... atada= = _y la razón va atada al triunfal
carro de la moda, universal señora_.
=219.=--10-16. =¿Esperaréis... ata?= = _¿esperaréis que
(el) himeneo forme más venturosos lazos do el interés,
tirano del deseo, barata ajena mano y fe por nombre ó
plata, que do conforme gusto, conforme edad, y_ (= both)
_elección libre y_ (= and) _mutuo ardor ata los lazos?_
Note that, by poetic license, =ata= agrees in number with
the nearest subject, although it has two.
=220.=--8-11. As this poem was written after the
Spanish-American colonies had revolted against the mother
country, Bello no longer rejoices at the success of
Spanish arms nor grieves over their losses, as he had done
when he wrote _Á la victoria de Bailén_.
Pérez Bonalde: see note to p. 214.
=222.=--5. The Venezuelan flag is yellow, blue and red
with seven small white stars in the center.
=225.=--=La carcelera=: the words and music of this
song and of the first that follows are taken from the
_Cancionero salmantino_ (Dámaso Ledesma), Madrid, 1907.
=227.=--=La cachucha=: the words and music of this song
and of the five that immediately follow are taken page 322
from _Poesías populares_ (Tomás Segarra), Leipzig, 1862.
=238.=--=El trágala=: (lit., _the swallow it_) a song with
which the Spanish liberals taunted the partizans of an
absolute government.
=242.=--=Himno de Riego=: a song to the liberal general,
Rafael de Riego (1784-1823), who initiated the revolution
of 1820 in Spain and proclaimed at Cabezas de San Juan the
constitution of 1812. Cf. _Versification_, p. lxxix.
=251.=--=Himno Nacional de Cuba=, called also the =Himno
de Bayamo=, on account of the importance of Bayamo (see
in _Vocab._) in the Cuban revolution of 1868. Note the
ternary movement of this song, and see _Versification_, p.
lxxiii.