Ausiàs March: Life, Poetic Cycles, and Literary Legacy

Ausiàs March: Life and Legacy of the Valencian Poet

Biography and Personal Life

Ausiàs March was born in Valencia. After participating in military conflicts, he settled in Gandia, where he led a passionate life. He married Isabel Martorell but was widowed within a year and later remarried. March died on 3 March 1459, leaving four illegitimate children.

The Poetic Legacy of Ausiàs March

The poet's enduring fame stems from a profound and complex poetic output. This poetry is characterized by several key elements:

• Introspection and the rigorous analysis of feelings.
• Philosophical reflection on human nature.
• A dedicated choice of language that pushes the boundaries of poetic expression to transmit a complex inner world.

March composed 128 songs, which are grouped into five different cycles, categorized according to the type of woman addressed:

The Five Cycles of Songs

1. Cycle of "Peny" (Wisdom): Addresses the lady's ingratitude, combining praise with the lover's desire and torture.
2. Cycle of the "Lily Among Thorns": Focuses on love that is fully corresponded by the lady. It introduces the theme of death within the context of painful passion.
3. Cycle of "Love, Love": Personifies Love itself. The poet mourns the loss of Love's power.
4. Cycle of "Oh, Mad Love": Represents the poet's maturity and old age. It deals with spiritual love and the refusal of the sensual love prominent in previous eras.
5. Poems of the World Behind It: Dedicated to his second wife, this cycle reflects the emotional balance and inner peace the poet found with her.

Key Thematic Groups

March’s work also contains specific thematic groups:

• Moral Songs:

  Rooted in philosophical tradition, particularly Aristotelian thought, these songs use introspection as the main point for analyzing feelings.

• Songs of Death:

  This theme becomes an obsessive focus for the aging poet, expressing existential anxiety regarding destiny, the fate of the beloved woman's soul, and God's justice.

• Spiritual Song:

  A long prayer where the poet invokes God to help him overcome his lack of religiosity.

Style, Metrics, and Influence

Poetic Style

March's style frequently employs comparison, drawing on personal experience to explain a mood. To express emotional contradictions, he relies heavily on antithesis, imprecation, and vocative questions.

Metrics

The metrics are regular, utilizing the decasyllabic verse (10 syllables) with a caesura (pause) typically falling on the fourth syllable (LBA structure). The poems are distributed in stanzas, often using encuadrades (ABBA rhyme scheme) and capcaudades (linked stanzas).

Language and Influence

The poetic language of March shows no trace of Provençal influence. Instead, it features an original method that clearly reflects the Valencian variety of the language.

His poems are considered among the most significant and influential works in our literature. While he was not an easy poet for his contemporaries, later readers and imitators included Louis Milan, John Boscán, and Garcilaso de la Vega.