Romantic & Reneixença Poetry: Key Authors & Themes
Romantic Lyric Poetry: An Overview
Romantic lyric poetry stands out as being suitable for the expression of feelings. In Germany, Goethe was a prominent author. In England, Byron, author of The Corsair, is a prototypical romantic hero.
Two Kinds of Poetry
- Lyric Poetry: Focuses on the expression of feelings. The style is often rhetorical and bombastic. The metric is innovative, employing polymetry. Main themes include feelings, the ideal woman, the broken heart, and the landscape reflecting the poet’s sadness (e.g., the night, the cemetery).
- Narrative Poetry: Focuses on the narration of events. Emphasizes legends and historical events. Two groups exist: extensive historical, legendary, or fantastic poems (e.g., El Estudiante de Salamanca by José Espronceda) and short poems, romances. The historical romances of the Duke of Rivas and those recreated by Zorrilla emphasize popular legends.
The Poetry of Reneixença
The Reneixença represents the flowering of Catalan letters, starting from the publication of Ode to the Motherland by Bonaventura Carles Aribau. Key works include L’Atlàntida and Canigó by Jacint Verdaguer.
Galician and Castilian Poetry
Rosalía de Castro, writing in Galician, produced Cantares gallegos and Follas novas, which deal with the beauty of the landscapes of Galicia and the plight of migrant farmers. In Castilian, her work On the banks of Sar is simple and straightforward, demonstrating technical mastery and forming a liaison between Becquerian and Modernist poetry.
José Espronceda
José Espronceda’s lyric poems address issues such as the defense of the marginalized and their political views, as well as the loss of youth. His style uses rhythmic verse and contrasting sound and musicality. Examples include The Beggar, which defends the marginalized, To May the Second, expressing political ideals, and To a Star, expressing regret for lost youth.
Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
The Rhymes is a collection of poems divided into four sections:
- Poetic inspiration
- Love and illusions
- The failure of love and heartbreak
- Loneliness and death
The style is simple but with great perfection of form. The poetry is subjective and influenced by the romantic poetry of Heine and Andalusian popular songs. Bécquer created new stanzas with a preference for assonance. The poem’s content is expressed without rhetoric but with great intensity.
Legends
Bécquer’s prose works, a collection of fantasy stories set in the Middle Ages, express the author’s intimate problems. Examples include The Mountain of Souls, Green Eyes, The Organist Maese Pérez, Moonlight, The White Doe, and The Kiss.
The Prose Romance
The romance novel is at times romantic, especially when set in the Middle Ages. The creator of the historical novel was Walter Scott, author of Ivanhoe, which depicts the conflict between Saxons and Normans. In Spain, highlights include The Lord of Aleppo Benbibre by Enrique Gil, and Bécquer’s legends.
Customary Essays
Customary essays attempt to discover contemporary society’s folk customs and crafts, portraying typical modern characters. Larra’s work deviates from this kind of manners to defend modernizing society. Mesonero Ramon, author of Matritenses Scenes, focused on life in Madrid.
Realistic and Naturalistic Prose in Europe
The novel experienced a boom in Europe during this period.
Key Authors and Works
- England: Charles Dickens portrayed the squalid conditions of life for the working class in works like David Copperfield.
- Russia: Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment focuses on the development of the novel in psychology and the passions of the characters. Tolstoy’s War and Peace is a portrait of Russian society.
- France: Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary recounts the amorous adventures of a married woman. Emile Zola is the author of Nanny.