Spanish Golden Age Poetry: Styles, Themes, and Metrics
Verbal Periphrasis Classes
Respect
Expresses if the verbal action has ended or continues to develop in the present.
Inchoative
Expresses an action that will begin shortly.
Durative
Expresses an unfinished action. As the gerund is imperfect aspect, all periphrases formed by a gerund are durative.
Perfect
Expresses an action that has finished. As the participle has finished or perfect aspect, all periphrases formed by a participle are perfect.
Frequentative
Expresses actions that resume shortly after finishing. Example: back to school.
They express a subjective attitude of the speaker.
Obligation
I study.
Doubt, Hypothesis, or Probability
I look at.
Values of SE
SE as Pronoun
Personal Pronoun (se = le)
Example: I told him.
Reflexive Pronoun
Example: She washed herself, She washed her hands.
Reciprocal Pronoun
Example: They greet each other, they send letters to each other.
Verbal Pronominal Morpheme
It expresses intransitivity. Example: He fell.
Passive
It expresses passive voice. Example: Houses are sold.
Impersonal
Example: We received the ambassador, homes for sale.
Garcilaso de la Vega
Life
Garcilaso was born in Toledo. He was a Spanish Golden Age poet and military man. He was a personal friend of Emperor Charles V and married a lady-in-waiting of the emperor’s sister. However, their friendship ended when the Emperor attended his nephew’s wedding without permission. Charles V banished Garcilaso to an island in the Danube. Later, he was confined in Naples until being sent to war with the French. He died in southern France and was buried in Nimes.
Themes
Garcilaso’s main theme is Petrarchan love. He directs all his compositions to an idealized lady named Isabel Freire. Garcilaso’s work can be divided into two parts: compositions written when Elizabeth was alive, and others after her death. Petrarchan love is an evolution of courtly love from the troubadours. Another theme is the idealized nature, describing pleasant places, characteristic of the classical style of poets like Virgil, Horace, and Sannazaro.
Metrics
Garcilaso uses seven-syllable or hendecasyllable lines with heroic verse rhyme for a more cultured style. The main verses used are the sonnet, lira, stanza, royal octave, and silva.
Style
Garcilaso’s style is classical, characterized by brevity, simplicity, clarity, elegance, and naturalness. The naturalness is achieved through language fluency, making it seem as if he wrote as he spoke.
Sonnet
A stanza consisting of two quartets and two triplets (14 lines) of hendecasyllables with rhyme. The rhyme scheme is ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.
Lira
A stanza consisting of three seven-syllable lines and two hendecasyllables. It is a verse that repeats, complying with the Horatian style. The rhyme is consonant. The rhyme scheme is 7a 11B 7b 7a 11B.
Stanza
A strophe formed by heptasyllable or hendecasyllable verses with rhyme. The order of the verses and rhymes varies according to the poem, so there is no standard metric scheme.
2nd Renaissance (2nd Half of the 16th Century)
Themes
Petrarchan love remains, but religion emerges, with asceticism (Fray Luis de León) and mysticism (St. John of the Cross). The heroic or patriotic theme appears, following the model of El Cid. Horatian odes are also recovered, mainly by Fray Luis de León.
Metrics
The same verses as the first half of the 16th century are used, with sonnets and liras dominating.
Style
Classical style (brevity, naturalness, and clarity) mixes with Mannerism (from Italy), complicating language through more artistic resources.
Fray Luis de León
Life
Born in Cuenca, he spent much of his life in Salamanca. He was an Augustinian friar of Jewish converso descent. He taught at the University of Salamanca and was an expert in theology and Bible translations. His strong, combative character led him to spend five years in prison.
Themes
His two most important themes were Beatus Ille (retired life), a humanist theme, and the desire for heaven, an ascetic theme.
Baroque Lyric (17th Century)
Themes are divided into two groups: Renaissance themes (Petrarchan love, idealized nature, patriotism, Tempus Fugit, Carpe Diem) and new Baroque themes (disappointment/disillusionment, death, religion, and contrasting values like beauty and ugliness).
Francisco de Quevedo
Life
Quevedo was born in Madrid to a noble family. He traveled to Italy as secretary to the Duke of Osuna. He was exiled and imprisoned in León, dying in Villanueva de los Infantes in 1645.
Work
Quevedo’s poetry was grave and serious, tackling philosophical, moral, and religious issues. He also wrote Petrarchan love poetry, but specialized in satirical, burlesque, and poetry expressing disappointment or discussing death.
Metrics
He used two types of metrics: cultured (Italian model, dominated by sonnets) and popular (Castilian tradition, using romances).
Style/Language
Quevedo’s style was Conceptismo, preferring conceptual metaphors and resources like antitheses, puns, and paradoxes.
Conclusion
Quevedo’s poetry repeats old themes but adds linguistic difficulty, hindering understanding.
Luis de Góngora
Life
Born in Córdoba, he worked as a court priest in Madrid.
Themes
His poems are serious, addressing disillusionment and death. He also wrote about love, including Petrarchism (Carpe Diem sonnet), satirical burlesque works (a Baroque theme), and romances and letrillas criticizing Quevedo.
Metrics
He used both cultured and popular metrics. Cultured metrics included sonnets, royal octaves (Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea), and chained triplets, usually with 11-syllable lines and rhyme. Popular metrics included romances, carols, and letrillas, with 8-syllable lines and assonant rhyme.
Culterano Style/Language
Culteranismo is a style that overuses literary devices like metaphor, cultism, and hyperbaton. Metaphor substitutes reality with an image (“the gold of your head”), cultism uses learned words borrowed from Latin, and hyperbaton disrupts syntax. Descriptions abound in this style.