Modernism in Poetry: Characteristics and Key Figures

Modernism in Poetry: A Literary Movement

Modernism was a poetic movement that emerged in the Castilian tongue during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Key Themes of Modernism

• The legacy of Romanticism (existential malaise, tendency to escape reality).
• Modernism's own themes: love and eroticism, cosmopolitanism, refined, aristocratic, and exquisite aesthetics.
• The Latin American world.

Modernist Metrics

Modernism brought a metric revolution, with a tendency to lengthen the poetic line. The Alexandrine verse (14 syllables) became the most common, accepting the concept of tonic and unstressed syllables combined to create rhythm and musicality.

Among Peninsular modernists, the taste for popular verses remained, including:

• Verse
• Streak
• Soleá
• Romance

Duration and Evolution of Modernism

Rubén Darío is widely considered the clearest representative of this genre. While there is no universal agreement on its exact duration (some suggest it ended around 1910), the movement can generally be divided into two stages:

• First Stage: Characterized by the worship of the sensory and formal preciousness.
• Second Stage: Shows greater sobriety and a more personal, sometimes more pained and sincere, theme.

Spanish Modernism

Spanish Modernist authors include:

• Salvador Rueda
• Valle-Inclán
• Most of the work of Manuel Machado
• The early works of Juan Ramón Jiménez
• The early works of Antonio Machado

These authors were often more intimate in their treatment of themes and exhibited less external brilliance compared to their Hispanic American counterparts.

Hispanic American Modernism: Rubén Darío

Rubén Darío embodied the maximum currents of Modernism, fusing elements like Parnassianism and poetic Symbolism.

Rubén Darío's First Stage: Formative and Experimental

• Use of synesthesia.
• Interest in Parnassian poetry.
• Incorporation of mythological references.

Rubén Darío's Second Stage: Azul

This stage begins with his seminal book Azul.

Innovations include:

• Sonnet forms, Alexandrine verses, and dodecasyllables.
• French syntax (hyperbaton).
• Refined style, colorful and sensual adjectives.
• Themes of women, eroticism, dreams, and nature.
• A variety of sounds, rhythms, and exoticism.

Rubén Darío's Third Stage: Prosas Profanas

In this stage, Darío experiments with a variety of stanzas, focusing on themes of sexual love, erotic pleasure, and passion.

Rubén Darío's Fourth Stage: Cantos de vida y esperanza

His personal crisis profoundly affects his poetry, leading to the emergence of existential and political themes. He expresses anxiety about failure, transience, and the meaninglessness of life and death, particularly alarmed by the outcome of the Cuban War.