Garcilaso de la Vega: Poetic Themes, Style, and Petrarchan Influence

Garcilaso's Poetic Legacy

Petrarchan Songbook Organization

Garcilaso's poetic works were modeled on Petrarch's songs. In the fifteenth century, a 'songbook' referred to a collection of poems and songs by various authors. However, in the Petrarchan tradition, a songbook is a collection of poems by a single author, narrating the sentimental or romantic journey of the poet.

Petrarch's Canzoniere is divided into two main parts:

• A collection of poems dedicated to his beloved while she lived.
• A set of poems written in memory of his beloved, once she's dead.

The collection begins with a sonnet serving as a prologue and concludes with another sonnet. In this final sonnet, Petrarch seeks eternal comfort through a prayer to the Virgin Mary.

Garcilaso's work exhibits an organization as perfect as Petrarch's songs. Similar to Petrarch, Garcilaso's love story has a central reference point: the death of his beloved Elisa.

The thematic evolution in Garcilaso's songs parallels the development of his formal poetry.

Formation of Garcilaso's Literary Style

Garcilaso's style shows a clear evolution from its initial proximity to the cancionero lyrical tradition.

The style of Castilian cancionero poetry manifested in Garcilaso's early lyricism through the following features:

• Frequency of acute rhymes
• Lack of imagery
• Internalization of the feeling of love
• Absence of the external world (nature)

Regarding language, the connection to cancionero lyricism is evident in the conceptual and rhetorical wordplay.

Garcilaso's style consolidated during his stay in Naples. His refined style incorporates the epithet, primarily applied to the description of nature. This new poetic style is characterized by greater lexical richness and sensory detail, and a departure from the tendency to dilute expression through synonymous terms.

Themes in Garcilaso's Poetry: Love and Nature

Two main themes dominate the poetry of Garcilaso de la Vega: love and nature.

Love is the dominant theme, inspired by Isabel Freyre. Garcilaso experiences the feeling of love as a painful yet authentic experience. His conception of love is rooted in the Platonic tradition, rejecting lustful love in favor of a spiritual connection.

Nature prominently appears in his Eclogues, marking the zenith of his poetic style.