Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer’s Rhyme II: An In-Depth Analysis
Introduction
The proposed text for commentary is Rhyme II by the poet Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, from Seville. Within the series that often groups Bécquer’s poems, Rhyme II belongs to the first, in which the poet reflects on poetry. This series ranges from Rhyme I to XI. Bécquer’s work is in the post-romantic current, which is characterized by simplicity, melancholy, and other observable traits in the themes and vocabulary.
Theme
The theme of this rhyme is the poet’s lack of knowledge of his destination. This ignorance causes him a lack of understanding of his own personality. We may summarize the content of the poem in a very common rhetorical question in the history of mankind: Where do we come from, where are we going?
Structure
The poem consists of twenty verses, grouped in five eight-syllable quatrains rhyming assonance in pairs. In each stanza, the poet has used the so-called Quartet strophic composition, characterized by the aforementioned parts. The rhyme could be divided into two distinct parts:
- The first four verses form the first part, whose function would be the introduction and development. In this part, the poetic voice lists various natural elements to which he compares himself.
- The last stanza is the second part, whose function would be the conclusion. In this last part, the poet identifies with the items listed to avoid the great lack of knowledge of his fate.
Style
The first thing to note is the elaborate use of words by the poet. In the second verse of each stanza, note the use of the infinitive (to expire, v.14; thinking, v.18; …), an element used for easy rhyme, though mostly to give a durative aspect to the actions.
In the last line of each verse, you can see the massive use of verbs in the future indicative (diving, v.4; again, v.8; …), to give an incomplete nature to the actions. Before discussing the poem in more depth, one might note here the semantic and syntactic parallelism of the verses; this is a feature in the poetry of Bécquer. Furthermore, the poet is compared with natural elements, such as the arrow, blade, wave, …, which nobody cares about or is interested in, the same attitude that people have about the poet. The passivity of the people is seen in the verbs (do not know where, v. 3; is ignored, v.11). Do not forget that the elements of the first four stanzas are closely related to the ideal of the romantic landscape (wild sea, the third stanza; abandoned landscapes, second verse; …).
Referring in more detail to the elements that the poet uses in the poem, we should point out the abundance of hyperbatons, observed in the first line of each stanza (Saeta that instead of flying Saeta that …). The poet has used this figure of speech to give greater importance to the element itself and to give more movement to these elements. The author also uses another method to give more movement: the use of verbs of motion in this (crosses, v.2; steals, 6; …); that are linked to natural phenomena such as the gale, v. 6; the sea, v.10 … We also noticed the last stanza (most important), in which the poet identifies with the above (That’s me, v.17). He further shows his total ignorance of the destination through an antithesis of the last two verbs (come, v.18; bear, v.20).