Baroque Era: Art, Culture, and Poetry of the 17th Century

The Splendor and Fall of the Baroque

The Baroque is the cultural and artistic movement that developed during the 17th century. This era coincided with a period of economic and social crisis, marked by:

• Poverty and depopulation.
• The expulsion of the Moors.
• Kings leaving the government in the hands of politicians.
• A serious crisis caused by bankruptcy and the decline in the arrival of precious metals from America.
• The impoverishment of the majority of the population. Disillusionment and disappointment replaced Renaissance ideals.

Thought and Culture

The Baroque period was characterized by pessimism and disillusionment. Humanist ideals were abandoned in favor of a deeper focus on religion. This sense of crisis was reflected in a culture of violent contrasts. Great writers of the Baroque expanded the channels of expression, leading to the following attitudes:

• Increasing dominance of the senses.
• Joyful vitality.
• Distressed and vital Dodsworth.
• Resigned acceptance of life.

17th Century Lyrical Poetry

Many authors cultivated lyrical poetry in the 17th century.

Topics in Baroque Poetry

• Metaphysical, Moral, and Religious Poetry: Concerns and reflections on life. Disillusionment with the humanization of religious sentiment led to a fusion of religion with moral and metaphysical themes.
• Love Poetry: Themes of courtly love and Petrarchan ideals persisted but were taken to a higher intensity, combining moral and loving sentiments.
• Satire and Burlesque Poetry: The purpose of these skits was to satirize particular characters, vices, or customs of the time.

Form and Style

Baroque poetry continued forms that prevailed in the Renaissance, mixing elements of both ordinary and cultivated styles.

• Metric: A great variety of metrical forms were used:
  1. Italian Verses: Hendecasyllables and their combinations (seven syllables).
  2. Castilian Verse: Octosyllables in quatrains, limericks, and letrillas. The glosa technique and the décima (abbaccaddc) were also used.
  3. Romances.
• Expressive Resources: Baroque poetry is full of expressive resources: metaphors, paradoxes, cultismos, puns, hyperbole.

Luis de Góngora and Culteranismo

Luis de Góngora sought a distinct aesthetic pleasure through poetry that appealed to the senses.

• Pictorial Sense: Descriptive poetry with a sensory taste, contemplative and image-rich.
• Landscape: Mixture of cultured and popular elements, drawing from tradition.
• Satire and Panegyric: Critical outputs alongside praise of noble heroes.

Topics in Góngora's Poetry

Góngora's poetry presents a wide variety of themes.

Style

The most obvious feature of Góngora's poetry is its difficulty, which he presented as a challenge to intelligence and sensitivity.

• Cultismos: Góngora used words of Latin origin to distance himself from everyday language.
• Hyperbaton, Mythological Allusions, Metaphor.

Works

• Popular Poetry: The themes of the romances are varied. The letrillas are compositions, usually satirical, of eight-syllable or six-syllable verses, with a refrain that is repeated after each stanza.
• Cult Poetry:
  • Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea: A mythological poem written in stanzas.
  • Panegyric to the Duke of Lerma.
  • Fable of Pyramus and Thisbe.