Renaissance Neoplatonism and Spanish Lyric Poetry

Neoplatonism's Influence on Love and Beauty

Renaissance Neoplatonism elevated love and beauty to essential components for spiritual transcendence. This philosophy heavily influenced the era's love lyric. Petrarchism, introduced in the 16th century by Juan Boscán and Garcilaso de la Vega, became a prominent literary movement.

Garcilaso de la Vega: A Renaissance Gentleman

Garcilaso de la Vega, a model Renaissance gentleman, combined literary pursuits with military service. Despite his early death, he produced a diverse body of work, including sonnets, songs, elegies, and epistles written in blank verse (e.g., Epistle to Boscán). He broke with tradition by using unrhymed lines instead of the classical chained tercets for the epistolary genre.

Garcilaso's Poetic Forms

Garcilaso mastered various poetic forms:

• Lira: A stanza form with five and seven-syllable verses (7a/11B/7a/7b/11B).
• Eclogue: Reinventing Virgil's tradition, Garcilaso wrote three eclogues. The first used seven-syllable verse and hendecasyllables, the second used chained hendecasyllabic tercets (ABA, BCB), and the third used eight-line hendecasyllabic stanzas (ABABABCC).

Themes and Influences in Garcilaso's Poetry

While exploring various themes, love remained central to Garcilaso's work. Influenced by Italian lyricism, he employed pastoral settings, mythological allusions, and a Neoplatonic vision of love.

The Continuation of Italian Lyricism

The Italian Renaissance lyric, introduced by Boscán and Garcilaso, continued to flourish throughout the 16th century with poets like Gutiérrez de Cetina, Francisco de Aldana, and Fernando de Herrera.

Renaissance Humanism and Pastoral Settings

Renaissance humanism promoted a return to classical models, including the figure of a shepherd singing of love to a shepherdess, often with a flute or pipe, in a pastoral setting. This imagery became common in pastoral novels.

Religious and Mystical Poetry

Renaissance culture also embraced religious and mystical lyricism, often reflecting the moral ideals of the time. Moral themes were frequently explored in epistles written in chained tercets.

Fray Luis de León and Religious Poetry

Fray Luis de León exemplified religious poetry, blending Christian thought with Renaissance ideals. His work often featured biblical and mythological allusions, reflecting Neoplatonic, Platonic, Pythagorean, and Stoic influences.

Mystical Poetry: The Union with the Divine

Mystical poetry, exemplified by San Juan de la Cruz (Spiritual Canticle) and Santa Teresa de Jesús (Interior Castle), sought to express the experience of union with the divine. This process was often divided into three stages: purgative, illuminative, and unitive.