Romantic Poetry: Characteristics, Trends, and Key Authors

Characteristics of Romantic Poetry

In subject matter, love figures prominently, often a passionate love that is usually impossible to achieve. The lexicon is populated by words that reflect the spirit of the times: dissatisfaction, pessimism. Metrics are used in all types of stanzas and verses.

Trends of Romantic Poetry

• Lyric or Sentimental Poetry: Major cultivators of lyric poetry were Espronceda, the Duke of Rivas, Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, and Rosalía de Castro.
• Narrative or Historical Poetry:
  • Historical Poem: Medieval themes.
  • Philosophical Poem: Cultivated by Espronceda (e.g., "The Student of Salamanca").
  • Narrative Poem: Romance restored by the Duke of Rivas.
  • Legend: Focuses on folkloric traditions; the main cultivator was José Zorrilla.
• Social Poetry: Poems that exalt figures or antisocial behavior.
• Poetry Written by Women: Main representatives are Rosalía de Castro and Carolina Coronado.

Poetry of José de Espronceda

Songs

There are six compositions referring to human symbols of marginal ideological and moral values:

• The Pirate and the Beggar
• The Prisoner of Death and the Executioner
• Cossack Song
• Pirate Song, which emphasizes the independence of man and values freedom above life.

The Student of Salamanca

Theme: Traditional literary motifs of the trickster, the man who witnesses his own funeral, and the dance of death. The treatment reflects a new romantic conception through the themes of love and death. The protagonist is characterized by his rebellion against God.

The Devil World

Style: Use of a variety of meters and stanzas. In his verses, punctuation marks, rhetorical and rhythmic resources, and antithesis are common.

Poetry of Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer

Bécquer is the most important Romantic poet. He belonged to the late Romantic period and created a new kind of intimate poetry that notably influenced later poets like Machado and Juan Ramón Jiménez.

Rhymes

These are 79 short poems divided into four groups:

• First Group (Rhymes 1-11): Includes a series of rhymes whose theme is poetry itself and poetic creation.
• Second Group (Rhymes 12-29): Hopeful about love; love is lived in fullness, and the woman is portrayed as having an attractive beauty and high spiritual virtues.
• Third Group (Rhymes 30-51): Focuses on the failure of love.
• Fourth Group (Rhymes 52-79): Shows loneliness, anguish, and death.

Style and Metrics

• Spoken forms.
• Bimembrations and parallelisms: The pace is often evident in the presence of bimembrations established with various types of words.

With respect to metrics, Bécquer's poetry is dominated by assonance and a mixture of heptasyllables and hendecasyllables. The "silva romance" predominates.