Traditional Spanish Poetry: From Ballads to Manrique
Traditional Poetry: The Ballads
The set of anonymous and traditional ballads, called “old ballads” to differentiate them from those written by known poets in later centuries (referred to as “new ballads”), seems to have originated from the fragmentation of medieval epic poems. In this process, each hemistich of the epic poem became a full line with a caesura in the ballad. However, while this theory may apply to epic ballads, others are directly related to traditional lyric poetry. The oldest known ballads mostly date back to the 15th century. While initially part of an oral tradition, ballads began to spread through the printing press in the late 15th century, first as broadsides and later collected in songbooks and ballad collections. Due to their oral transmission, multiple versions of most ballads exist.
Features
Structure: There are two main types: the narrative ballad, which presents an action and its outcome, and the scene ballad, which reflects a particular moment. Narrative ballads are less frequent, while scene ballads, often featuring dialogue, are more common.
Fragmentation: Especially prevalent in scene ballads, the action often starts and ends abruptly, presenting a truncated ending.
Dialogue: A fundamental element, usually in direct style, which adds expressiveness to the poem.
Verb Tenses: Used in a particular way, combining past, present, and even future tenses.
Literary Devices: Frequent use of parallelism, enumeration, hyperbole, comparisons, and antithesis.
Language: Archaic language is commonly employed.
Classification by Theme
Epic Ballads: Organized in cycles related to historical events and heroes, such as the cycle of El Cid or the Infantes de Lara.
Border Ballads: Written during the Reconquista, they recount events between Moors and Christians on the borders.
Lyrical and Romantic Ballads: Deal with diverse themes, including biblical, mythological, pastoral, and amorous subjects.
Learned Poetry
Learned poetry from the 15th century reflects the heritage of medieval troubadour poetry. Its features include influences from Galician-Portuguese and Provençal lyrical poetry, and later, Italian lyrics. The main theme is love, inspired by the doctrine of courtly love. Other themes include Dante’s allegorical tendency, with philosophical and moral content. The most common forms are the canción and the serranilla. The most used lines are the octosyllabic and the arte mayor. Among the stanzas, the copla de arte mayor, with eight verses and a rhyme scheme of ABBA ACCA, is dominant.
Songbooks
An interesting literary phenomenon of 15th-century poetry was the emergence of songbooks. The most notable is the Cancionero de Baena, which includes examples of Galician-Portuguese poetry, allegorical poems influenced by Dante, moral poems, and love poetry.
Santillana and Mena
During the reign of Juan II of Castile, an important group of poets emerged, including the Marquis of Santillana and Juan de Mena. Their poetry reflects diverse influences, given their deep knowledge of classical, Italian, and Provençal poetry. Santillana’s greatest achievements are in allegorical poetry, heavily influenced by Dante’s Divine Comedy, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. He also wrote serranillas, which depict romantic encounters in mountainous areas. Juan de Mena’s major work is the Laberinto de Fortuna, a long allegorical poem of nearly 300 stanzas characterized by a strong Romanization of lexicon and syntax, attempting to elevate Castilian to the dignity of Latin. Mena dedicates this work to King Juan II and criticizes nobles seeking power.
Jorge Manrique and the Coplas
Jorge Manrique’s literary work is limited. He wrote love poetry in the tradition of courtly love, but a very different poem has given him the fame he enjoys today: the Coplas por la Muerte de su Padre. In this work, the poet uses the concrete fact of his father’s death and the elegiac genre to reflect deeply on the meaning of life, death, time, and the consolation of eternal life.
Themes and Topics
Death: Depicted as an impersonal and terrifying figure. Although it represents the death of an individual, it reveals its equalizing power, as in the Dances of Death. Don Rodrigo accepts death calmly and with dignity, with a clear Christian attitude of hope in eternal life.
The Transience of Life: The rapid passage of time leads inexorably to death. Manrique reflects on this using the literary topic “ubi sunt” (“where are they?”), widely used in the Middle Ages. The expressiveness of this resource is enhanced by the use of anaphora. The originality of Manrique’s use of the topic lies in his evocation of contemporary figures, making the moral lesson resonate with his readers.
Fame: The concept of fame is typical of the pre-Renaissance period, reflecting a growing interest in the individual. In the Coplas, fame is earned through personal merit and allows the living to be remembered after death. Manrique presents the doctrine of three lives: earthly life, the life of fame, and eternal life.
Structure
The elegy is divided into three parts, moving from the general to the particular. The first part is a general reflection on life, the passage of time, and death. The second part provides concrete examples, mentioning historical and contemporary figures, using the “ubi sunt” topic. In the third part, Manrique focuses on his father, praising his life as a Christian gentleman and narrating his encounter with death.
Meter
The work consists of 40 stanzas called coplas de pie quebrado (“stanzas of broken foot”). Each stanza has 12 verses, grouped in two sextuplets that combine eight-syllable and four-syllable lines with consonant rhyme.
Transcendence
One of the most significant features of the Coplas is their ability to combine medieval tradition with elements of the Renaissance. The anticipation of the Renaissance is evident in the consideration of the human figure as an individual and the value placed on the life of fame. The Coplas have been highly popular since their publication, and many poets have acknowledged their admiration for the work and its influence on them.