Rosalía de Castro’s Poetry: Nature and Subjectivity

Analysis of Poem LVIII from *On the Banks of Sar*

• Discuss the poem LVIII of On the Banks of Sar, Rosalía de Castro, describing it formally concerning the relationship of the lyrical with the natural environment.

The student should note the subtle rhyme Rosalía de Castro used in this poem: assonance and rhyme stanzas of variable structure, a different number of verses (seven, five, and two), and monorhythmic hexadecasyllables because they rhyme with each other (á-o, a-a, é-o) within each stanza.

It should also identify the main resources: solemnity, symbolism, epithets, etc.

Regarding content, one should note the marked subjective nature of the poem, a lyrical patent, to create a hearing (first verse) that elements of the natural environment discussed his condition, whispering into his alleged insanity. The response of the ‘I,’ which covers the next two stanzas, attests to the symbolic identification of the poet with the natural environment, their mutual contingency, for those natural elements take on the symbolic entity if dreamed (that is, poetically elaborated) by the poet’s madness—which, in turn, is the very stuff of poetry.

The two remaining points are assigned according to the capacity of argument, coherence of speech, fluency of expression and, ultimately, the cohesion and articulation of the comment.

Analysis of Poem XXVI from *On the Banks of Sar*

• Discuss poem XXVI of On the Banks of Sar, Rosalía de Castro, formally characterizing and stressing its symbolic aspects.

The student should note Rosalía de Castro’s limited interest in rhyme, which in this case is assonance, and her rejection of verses of rigid structure. Also, note the predominance of polymetry, or even ametria; that is, the combination of lines of different sizes, here specifically with the prevalence of the combination of heroic verse and heptasyllables.

The student should also identify the main resources: solemnity, symbolism, epithets, etc. Regarding content, the student should point to the marked subjective nature of the poem, staining the natural environment because all elements of the landscape and all sensory components correspond symbolically to the mood of the lyrical ‘I’ (verse 21). Thus, the colors are significantly gray, brown, or ashen; sounds are monotonous or imprecatory, if not foreboding cautionary; nature as a whole is harsh or adverse, but, in an apparent paradox, according to the poet’s soul, it is her objective correlative, either to corroborate this sadness and to announce, chimerically, some happy future. As we remember at the end, once the winter season is identified with old age (verse 31), it does not precede any spring, if not the dreamed or desired one.

The two remaining points are assigned according to the capacity of argument, coherence of speech, fluency of expression and, ultimately, the cohesion and articulation of the comment.

Ricardo Gullón on Rosalía de Castro’s Poetry

• Discuss the following words of Ricardo Gullón on the poetry of Rosalía de Castro: “The sadness, loyal companion of Rosalía, seldom reached in Spanish poetry as intense and sincere expression. For honest and straightforward is intense and emotional […]. For any language to express the sadness as suitable as this sweet Galician Rosaliana, free of rhetoric, which preserves the possibility of suggestion, their ability to convey tenderness, making a point of melancholy even in the curse.”

Ricardo Gullón meant that Rosalía de Castro’s poetry draws sincere melancholy, never false and, therefore, not prepared rhetorically. Accordingly, Rosalía deliberately wanted to give the book a rhetorical clarity reflected in the simple and concrete comparisons; few metaphors, but evocative, obvious symbols; repetition and contrast, not uncommon, and often of folk or popular origin. A natural stylistic contrast, often with the “shadows” and mystery that reveal a complex subjectivity that seems to write her poems in a cursing voice. It is obvious that the student can provide other features that go in that direction or otherwise paraphrase Gullón’s words, if the answer makes sense, is well-written, and meets the critic’s intent.