Analysis of Bécquer's Rima LIII: The Dark Swallows

LIII: There Will Be the Dark Swallows

Thematic Focus: Fear of loneliness and death.

Subject: Pain regarding the passage of time and lost love.

Summary: The poet expresses grief at the passing of life and love. The elements of nature take their course, but those elements of nature that witnessed their love will not return and will never again witness a love like the one he offered. She will repent for having rejected him, as no one will love her as he did.

Structural Organization of the Poem

The poem can be divided into three distinct parts:

• Part 1 (Stanzas 1-2): Explains how nature will take its course, but not the lovers.
• Part 2 (Stanzas 3-4): Nature will return to its course, but it will not return the love that was witnessed.
• Part 3 (Stanzas 5-6): Blames the beloved by warning of her rejection and stating that no one will be able to love her like him.

Commentary and Literary Devices

The poem contains a structure where the parallels and antitheses should be noted because it compares two thoughts: a future and sad thought with another that is past and happy.

Interrelated Verses

Verses 1 and 2, verses 5 and 6, and verses 9 and 10 are interrelated. For example: "There will be the bushy honeysuckle in your garden to scale the walls."

Key Rhetorical Figures

• Epithets: Verse 1, "the dark swallows," and verse 9, "bushy honeysuckle." "Dark" and "bushy" are explanatory adjectives that stress qualities inherent in the noun they accompany.
• Hyperbaton: Verses 1 and 2, "again the dark swallows nests on your balcony to hang."
• Personification: Verse 7, "those who learned our names..." The swallows do not actually learn human names.
• Hyperbole: Verse 13, "studded with dew." This is a visual image and is not necessarily considered a hyperbole.
• Comparison: Verse 15, "and fall like tears of..."
• Synesthesia: Verse 18, "fiery words to sound."
• Anaphora: Verses 22 and 23, "as God is worshiped at his altar, as I have loved..."

Metric and Rhyme Scheme

The poem utilizes hendecasyllable and seven-syllable lines (Bécquerian rhyme), with assonance in the even pairs.

Stylistic Analysis of Bécquer

The style is estimated for its simple lyrical nudity, transparency, and restraint. It features an intimate tone, with an indecisive and blurred line, and a total absence of rhetorical or conceptual ideological intentions. Bécquer excels in his ability to suggest and to drag the reader's imagination with slight hints.

The lyricism of Bécquer can be classified as symbolic (identifying with nature to encourage the state of the poet and to relate the physical elements and feelings surrounding it). He transforms elements into symbols to try to express the ineffable. Every effort aims to shed all accessories, to condense the poem, and to reduce its loudness and brightness to achieve a soft, melancholy solitude.

To create this intimacy of sketched and suggestive lines, he served his own skepticism on the floor. The verbal instrument seems insufficient to communicate; it is only possible to suggest more than to express directly.