The baroque poems They are poems that belong to the Baroque, an artistic movement that was characterized by using an ornamental language, that is, a very ornate, ornate and artificial language.
The Baroque arose in Italy in the 16th century as a counterpoint to the Renaissance aesthetic and spread to other countries in Europe and America. The themes that characterize this movement are pessimism, man as part of the universe and not as a center, concern for the transience of life, death and the passage of time and the revaluation of Platonic ideas.
In general, these issues were presented from a moralistic or satirical perspective, since they sought to point out and modify people’s vices and defects.
The typical poems of the Baroque are:
- sonnets. They are compositions with a fixed structure: two quatrains (stanzas of four lines of eleven syllables each and in which the first line rhymes with the fourth and the second with the third) and two tercets (stanzas of three lines of eleven syllables each). and in which the rhyme can adopt different combinations). The quartets usually present the theme and the last tercet is a final reflection. For example:
“A su retrato” by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
This colorful deceit you see,
that of art flaunting the finery,
with false colored syllogisms,
it is cautious deceit of sense;
this one, in whom flattery has sought
excuse the horrors of the years,
and overcoming the rigors of time
triumph over old age and oblivion,
It is a vain artifice of care,
It is a delicate flower in the wind,
It is a useless shelter for fate,
It is a foolish misguided diligence,
It is an outdated desire and, well looked at,
it is corpse, it is dust, it is shadow, it is nothing.
- romances. They are poems that can be very long because they do not have a limit on the number of verses. Each verse has eight syllables and even verses have assonance rhyme. For example:
Fragment of a romance by Luis de Góngora
hair in frizzy knots
Light gives the Sun, gold to Arabia,
Which of flowers prevented,
Which of silver cords.
They dress in the color of the sky,
If they are not of hope,
Palmillas that belittle
To the sapphire and the emerald.
- letrillas. They are short poems that are made up of lines of eight syllables. For example:
Fragment of a letrilla by Francisco de Quevedo
Powerfull knight
It’s Mr. Money.
Mother, I humble myself to gold:
he is my lover and my beloved,
because of pure love,
it walks yellow continuously;
so, simple doubloon,
does everything I want,
Powerfull knight,
It’s Mr. Money.
In Spain and Latin America there were two great movements that represented the Baroque: culteranismo and conceptismo.
Characteristics of the baroque poems of culteranismo
- Predominance of style and aesthetics. The poets sought to renew literature with creative originality and with the change of forms.
- cultured expressions. Expressions and terms of Greek and Latin origin were used. In addition, foreign words (words from other languages), neologisms (new words) and cultisms (words from Latin or Greek) were included.
- Changing the meaning of words. Many words were used to refer to things that were not referred to in conventional language. For example, the word “gold” was used to designate blond hair.
- Syntax alteration. The order of the words was altered following the syntactic structure of Latin. In addition, rhetorical figures such as hyperbaton and ellipsis are used to modify the natural order of words.
- Excessive use of rhetorical figures. Different rhetorical figures, such as metaphor, periphrasis and hyperbole, were used to write poems that were not easy to understand and to create artificial language.
- cultured topics. The themes were related to Greco-Roman mythology and history.
- featured author: Luis de Gongora.
Characteristics of the baroque poems of conceptism
- Predominance of the expression of ideas. The creation was not only related to aesthetics, but also incorporated creativity to associate concepts. The relationship between two ideas was made with humor, sharpness and subtlety.
- scholarly expressions. Neologisms and cultisms were used, but it was also very common to include vulgarisms.
- Changing the meaning of words. Many words were used to designate things other than those they designated in ordinary language.
- common syntax. The syntax of the Spanish language was used, but different rhetorical figures were included, such as puns, to create an aesthetic effect.
- Excessive use of rhetorical figures. Comparison, metaphor, allegory, parallelism, misunderstanding, and antithesis were used to establish new associations between concepts.
- Topics. The themes were mainly philosophical and moral and were approached from satire, since one of the objectives of these poems was to highlight the defects of people and their customs.
- featured authors: Francisco de Quevedo and Baltasar Gracian.
Examples of baroque poems
- Fragment of “Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea”, by Luis de Góngora
Of this, then, formidable earth
yawning, the melancholy emptiness
to Polyphemus, horror of that mountain range,
barbaric hut is, shady hostel
and a spacious fold where it encloses
how much the rough peaks rafter,
from the mountains, hides: beautiful copy
that a whistle gathers and a rock seals.
- “Silence, I deposit in your tomb”, by Juan de Tassis (sonnet)
Silence, in your sepulcher I deposit
hoarse voice, blind pen and sad hand,
so that my pain does not sing in vain
given to the wind and written in the sand.
Tomb and death of oblivion I request,
Although of warnings more than years of gray,
where today more than reason I flatten myself,
and in time I will give him what he took from me.
I will limit desires and hopes,
and in the orb of a clear disappointment
margins I will make my life brief,
so that snares do not defeat me
of who tries to procure my damage
and caused such a provid flight.
- Fragment of “Romance first”, by the Count of Villamedina
It is in the Plaza Mayor
all Madrid celebrating
with a celebration the days
of its king Felipe Cuarto.
He occupies, with the queen
and the heads of the palace,
the regal balcony dress
of tapestries and brocades.
In the others, that beautify
confectioners and apricots,
the great ones, with their ladies
and the noble courtiers,
they flaunt superb finery,
velvets and plumes.
- “Sonnet V”, by Gabriel Bocángel y Unzueta
Collect the sky on your first tomorrow
human flower, undead, interrupted,
in faith that you lived here offended
That moment no more than you were human.
How early your snow left, or scarlet
from the wrath of the shaken wind!
How late my hope with your life
you have taught to punish in vain!
If it is that to the homeland of light that you step on
lover’s death plea voice reaches
It is merit to love what I do not see.
If it is that your discretion in your power warns
Well, he knows that you died my hope,
make you know that my wish is missing.
- “Sonnet IX”, by Pedro Soto de Rojas
You say that good or bad, my lady,
you make me; I am so forgotten about you
that still relieve my care with sorrows
you disturb my crazy fantasy.
You do me more harm than sustaining could
in which I have felt and you have denied,
but, if you can, make me bend badly,
hurt me a thousand, out of courtesy.
That although it is enough to kill me
the one you do to everyone by looking at it,
I want to die stronger for you:
give me poison, give me, I’ll burn;
don’t drink any of it, that’s my luck
in rushing the poison into the glass.
- “Sonnet X”, by Francisco de Trillo y Figueroa
On a rock fallen over the sea,
that a mountain, eaten away by waves,
had its summit shaken,
much notice hiding in little ruin,
Daliso was a crazy hope
repeating from the sea to the deaf ear,
that to the hard they are of the tender crying,
hardly without fear the sand touches.
If a mountain is not firm even the wait,
who in the faith of a trustworthy fortune?
he says over and over again with harsh breath;
If even ruin reaches this rock,
What is my hope based on?
in what, if the lesson never takes.
- “A lady saw herself in a crystal skull”, by Luis de Sandoval y Zapata (sonnet)
In a crystal skull it was seen,
in the learned mirror he chastened
the one that, when beauty was looked at,
deadly light of beauty was heeded.
When secret fire introduced,
a diaphanous Troy burned
and crystal dust suspected
the one that luminous eternity burned.
Ah, he says, how in the crystal I see
to what shines most eternally:
it could be an ash lesson!
Death has to die, how was it done?
of crystal, which resembles life,
The same brittle death remained.
- “Sonnet VI”, by Agustín de Salazar y Torres
This happy example of beauty
that shines in purple ardor,
if it dawns to give admiration,
not to give lessons, he hastens.
Spaces do not measure their happiness,
for when brief exhalation blossoms,
of applause the view is enriched
and from injuries of time it is assured.
Why older? If it doesn’t get better
the pomp that shines in a fragrant fire,
and every moment counters a damage.
Too much eternity is an hour
to be in death wonder
and not be disappointed in life.
- Fragment of a letrilla by Luis de Góngora
Try others from the government
Of the world and its monarchies,
As they rule my days
Butters and soft bread,
and winter mornings
Orangeade and brandy,
And people laugh.
Eat on golden crockery
The prince thousand cares
Like golden pills;
That I on my poor table
I want more of a black pudding
that bursts on the spit,
And people laugh.
- Fragment of “Description of Carmel, and praises of Santa Teresa”, by Pedro Calderón de la Barca (romance)
In peaceful Samaria,
to where the sun sets,
in emerald mound
lies a giant of flowers.
Atlantean green of the skies,
so much her beauty opposes,
that, being heaven on earth,
it seems in the sky mount.
Blocking the wind’s way,
up to the sphere, where
piece of heaven outside,
to be some colors.
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