Poetry’s Limits: Expressing the Inexpressible
“Giant Anthem”: Reflections on Poetry and Language
The poem reflects on the inadequacy of language to express the deepest sentiments. It explores how human language struggles to convey the full spectrum of emotion, feeling, and beauty found in poetry.
Summary
The poet describes a “giant anthem” (poetry) filled with desires that transcend mere words, encompassing sighs and laughter. The line, “But in vain is to fight,” highlights the futility of trying to fully capture meaning with language, acknowledging its insufficiency.
Structure
The poem can be divided into three parts:
- 1st Stanza: Knowledge of poetry. It is described as a “giant and strange anthem,” full of feeling and mystery.
- 2nd Stanza: The desire to communicate. The poet is aware that language is insufficient to express complex human experiences. He confesses and regrets his own inability to adequately express his feelings.
- 3rd Stanza: The failed attempt: “But in vain is to fight.” It is useless to try to express sentiment with words. The poet laments his inability to whisper in his beloved’s ear and explain his feelings.
Commentary
This poem serves as an introduction to Bécquer’s *Rhymes*. The language is simple, yet rich in symbols and metaphors. “Anthem” refers to his poetry, using adjectives and personifications, attributing qualities to abstract concepts. For example, “giant and strange hymn” suggests something that a hymn cannot be (giant) or do (announce anything at night). He also attributes terms like “mean” and “rebellious” to language, and describes words as “sighs and laughter.”
The second stanza incorporates musical and pictorial terms, reflecting Bécquer’s background (his father was a painter, and he initially pursued painting himself). The poem culminates in the author’s expressed inability to master language, conveyed through symbolic imagery. There is no single figure capable of encompassing the “hymn” the poet perceives.
Bécquer emphasizes poetic language’s inability to fully capture thought. A second person, the beloved, is introduced unexpectedly with an exclamatory “Oh, beautiful!” The author is not entirely dissociated from the loved one, but the projection, whether positive or negative, differs. Bécquer presents a full and grand vision. The initial frustration, marked by the absence of semicolons, gives the poem an agility. Gradually, pauses appear, reflecting an acceptance of his fate: “in vain is to fight.”
Bécquer’s poetic quality is evident in his masterful use of symbols, metaphors, and other grammatical devices to express the chaotic emotions he experiences. While many features of his style align with Romanticism, Bécquer is considered the father of modern poetry, and his soaring sentiments resonate with contemporary readers.
Poetic Style
Bécquer’s lyrical style is characterized by its simplicity, transparency, and restraint. His intimate and blurred tone, his lack of rhetorical or ideological intentions, and his ability to subtly suggest and draw the reader’s imagination are hallmarks of his work. His *lirica* can be classified as symbolic, identifying nature with the poet’s state of mind, or relating physical elements to surrounding feelings. He transforms elements into symbols to express the ineffable. He strives to strip away accessories, condense the poem, and reduce its loudness to achieve a soft, melancholic solitude. He creates intimacy through suggestive lines and his own skepticism. The verbal instrument seems insufficient; it is only possible to suggest, rather than directly express.
Metric Analysis
The poem consists of three stanzas, each with four hendecasyllabic (eleven-syllable) lines. The rhyme scheme is assonant in pairs (o-r), characteristic of *arte mayor* (high art). The lines are long, ranging from nine to twelve syllables, demonstrating Bécquer’s preference for asymmetry. The assonant rhyme pairs (dawn/shadow, language/notes, beautiful/alone) create a pattern where the first term is singular and the second plural.