Catalan Renaissance Poetry: A Comparative Analysis
Century and the Fifteenth Century: A Decay and Renaissance
‘The pattern’ was written by Bonaventura Carles Aribau (Barcelona, 1798-1862) while working in Madrid. It was published by The Steam in 1833 and became the symbol of the movement known as the Renaissance. This movement promoted the exaltation of the Romantic landscape (Montseny, Llobregat) and “The Pattern” was the first poem to be published according to the new Romantic tastes.
For Aribau, exiled from Catalonia, there is only one way to satisfy his longing for his homeland: language. He uses syntactic resources, metaphors, and symbols to express his farewell to Catalonia. He yearns for the geography, the torrents, and the Catalan language. The poet turns to the language and personifies it. The recovery of the language and identity are central topics of the Renaissance. Aribau compares himself to a migrated tree. In the nineteenth century, Catalan language reemerges. The poem utilizes hyperbaton, placing the verb at the end.
The ode is structured in six eight-line stanzas with Alexandrine verses rhyming AABBCCDD. The verses alternate between masculine and feminine endings, with twelve syllables and consonant rhyme.
Miquel Costa i Llobera: The Pine of Formentor
Miquel Costa i Llobera wrote the poem Pine of Formentor, taking as a reference the pines on the cliffs of the Formentor peninsula, on the northeast coast of Mallorca. These landscapes served as inspiration for his work. The first stanzas praise the pine and express the poet’s love for it. The second and third stanzas sing the virtues of the tree, attributing to it simplicity, perfection, and strength against the elements.
The fifth and sixth stanzas speak of the creative genius that dominates everything. From the seventh stanza onwards, the “Pine of Formentor” becomes a symbol of the poet’s perfect and eternal guide. We find archaisms (“my heart / its leaves”) and Mediterranean imagery (vineyard, olive tree, orange, pine). The poem utilizes comparisons (like a giant), emphasizes the vitality of the pine, and incorporates celestial imagery.
The poem consists of four stanzas with fourteen Alexandrine verses and a rhyme scheme of AABBCCDD. Rhetorically, the poem uses personification to address the pine.
Joan Maragall: The Blind Cow
The Blind Cow is one of the poems by Joan Maragall (Barcelona, 1860-1911), a thinking person, conservative, and an exponent of modernist poetry. He wrote as a refuge from the disaster of 1898, where Spain lost Cuba and Puerto Rico. The poem was likely written in 1893, inspired by the landscape between Camprodón and Sant Joan de les Abadesses, where the poet summered with his family.
This poem is very popular. Within modernism, it places great importance on nature and observation. Maragall writes from imagination and reality, not invention. He has a vitalist spirit, as shown when the cow gets up again. There is a repetition of sounds (alliteration), creating a slow pace, like the cow’s walk. One of the themes is solitude (“she came alone”).
The poem utilizes literary resources such as encabalgamiento, polysyndeton, antithesis, and alliteration. There is an enumeration of actions: the cow clashes her snout (perhaps the author wants to show society clashing with reality). The cow’s rising again represents vitality and optimism. The poem repeats sounds and consonants. Many verses describe the causes of the cow’s blindness. She is marginalized by her tragic fate and surrounded by loneliness, but ultimately perseveres. The poem consists of twenty-three deca-syllabic verses without a regular rhyme scheme.
Joan Maragall: Ode to Spain
Ode to Spain is Joan Maragall’s response to the crisis of the Spanish-American War in the summer of 1898. The poem, written in 1898, was published in the magazine Catalonia. The main theme is regenerationism. Spain is addressed as a mother. The poem is written in the first person and uses enjambment in verses 1-2 to isolate the concept of “not a castle.”
There is no mention of Catalan, as it was denied at the time. The poem uses rhetorical questions in the third verse and includes a monologue addressed to Spain. It concludes that the country cannot change. The poem uses Spanish metrics, with a mix of 9-syllable and 10-syllable verses. Key concepts include “renaixença” (rebirth or identity) and language as a symbol. Maragall criticizes the people for clinging to past riches and calls for regeneration. He is not advocating for independence; when he says “goodbye Spain,” he refers to leaving behind the old Spain.
The poem is structured in eight six-line stanzas with irregular meter and rhyme scheme. It is presented as a dialogue with Spain, but is actually a monologue by the poet using rhetorical questions.