Essential Figures of Speech and Medieval Spanish Poetic Structures

Rhetorical Figures and Literary Devices

Figures of Repetition and Structure

• Alliteration: Repetition of initial consonant sounds.
• Anaphora: Repetition of the first word or phrase in successive clauses.
• Parallelism: Repetition of grammatical structures.
• Pleonasm: Use of unnecessary words (redundancy) for emphasis.
• Polysyndeton: Repetition of conjunctions (e.g., 'and', 'or').

Figures of Thought and Meaning

• Allegory: Transformation of the literal sense of a text into a symbolic meaning.
• Antithesis: Juxtaposition of contrasting or opposite words or ideas.
• Apostrophe: A sudden exclamation or direct address to an absent person or thing.
• Hyperbole: Exaggeration for emphasis or effect.
• Metaphor: Identification of a real concept with an imaginary one.
• Metonymy: Naming a thing by substituting the name of an attribute or related item.
• Personification: Giving human qualities to inanimate objects or animals.
• Comparison (Simile): Explicit comparison using 'like' or 'as'.
• Synaesthesia: Blending or uniting conflicting sensory feelings.
• Paronomasia (Pun): Use of similar-sounding words to create a word game.

Figures of Omission and Alteration

• Asyndeton: Elimination of conjunctions (connectors).
• Ellipsis: Suppression or omission of words.
• Hyperbaton: Altering the conventional word order.

Classical Spanish Verse Forms and Stanzas

• Cuaderna Vía: Four verses (lines), 14 syllables per line (Alexandrine), monorhyme consonant (AAAA).
• Couplet (Quarteta): Four verses, assonance rhyme (e.g., -a-a).
• Lira: Five verses, alternating 7 and 11 syllables, consonant rhyme scheme (7a 11B 7a 7b 11B).
• Coplas de pie quebrado (Broken-foot Couplet): Six lines, 8 syllables, consonant rhyme (often 8a 8b 4c 8a 8b 4c).
• Octava Real (Royal Octave): Eight verses, 11 syllables, consonant rhyme scheme (ABABABCC).
• Sonnet: 14 verses (lines), 11 syllables (hendecasyllables), typically structured in two quatrains and two tercets (e.g., ABBA ABBA CDE CDE).
• Letrilla: Short verses, often 8 syllables (octosyllables), with a refrain (introduction/estribillo). Rhyme scheme varies (e.g., 8a, 8b, 8a 8c...).
• Décima (Espinel Stanza): 10 verses, 8 syllables (octosyllables), consonant rhyme scheme (abbaaccddc).

Medieval Spanish Literary Movements

Mester de Clerecía (Clergy's Craft)

A cultured literary movement composed of intellectuals dedicated to spreading knowledge and doctrine. They utilized the Cuaderna Vía stanza form (four 14-syllable lines, AAAA consonant rhyme).

Key Works and Themes:

• Major works include the Libro de Alexandre and the Poema de Fernán González.
• Other works: Duelo de la Virgen and Disputa del alma y el cuerpo.

Lyrical Poetry Traditions

Associated with Troubadours and early vernacular song.

• Mozarabic Lyric: Written in the language of Christians in Al-Andalus. Features moaxajas and jarchas, often focusing on the theme of lost love or a man regretting his wife.
• Galician-Portuguese Lyric (12th Century): Characterized by parallelism and the repetition of verses. Themes include love, travel, and derision.
• Castilian Lyric (16th–17th Centuries): Found in songbooks, featuring carols (villancicos) and highlights like serranillas (mountain songs).

Mester de Juglaría (Minstrels' Craft) and Epic Poetry

The Minstrels' Craft focused on oral transmission of epic poems.

Castilian Epic Poetry

Characterized by historicist themes, focusing on a heroic figure. Structure involves long verses divided into hemistichs, using assonance rhyme.

• Examples: Cantar de Roncesvalles, Mocedades de Rodrigo (Youthful Deeds of the Cid).

The Ballads (Romances)

These emerged during the decline of the heroic epic. They have variable length and use assonance rhyme in the even lines (odd lines are free).

Ballad Characteristics:

• Themes: Political events of Christian kingdoms, border conflicts (Moriscos), epic literature, and romance (love).
• Style: Old and new forms, strong action and dialogue, starting in medias res (in the middle of the action), truncated endings, archaisms, substitution of verbs, and repetitions.

Key Authors of the Mester de Clerecía

Gonzalo de Berceo

A prominent figure of the Mester de Clerecía. His works include hagiographies (works of saints), doctrinal works, and Marian works. His style is characterized by submission to doctrine, a narrative trend, use of minstrel resources, and the Rioja dialect, all written in Cuaderna Vía.

His most extensive and important work is the Milagros de Nuestra Señora (Miracles of Our Lady), which includes an introduction about the sin of man and 25 miracles where the Virgin Mary saves sinners.

Juan Ruiz, Archpriest of Hita

The author of the most important work of the period, the Libro de Buen Amor (Book of Good Love). The central theme balances the love of God with mundane, earthly love.

Structure and Style:

The work begins with a prologue and is structured as a narrative of love, functioning as a collector of tales, satires, and didactic treatises (like an Ars Amandi, referencing Pamphilus de Amore). It employs lyricism and an allegorical style, primarily using Cuaderna Vía, except for certain poems and prayers.

His rhetorical techniques include: juxtaposition, interjections, repetitions, substantive words with connotative value, use of jargon, and various rhetorical devices.