Spanish Baroque Literature: Góngora, Quevedo, Lope de Vega

Baroque Literary Figures: Góngora, Quevedo, Lope de Vega

Luis de Góngora (Córdoba, 1561-1627)

Its principal representative is Luis de Góngora (Córdoba, 1561-1627). His culto works include the great poems Fable of Polyphemus (1612), Galatea, and The Solitudes (1613). These are poems of great complexity, both for his contemporaries and for readers today. However, Góngora's inspiration also led him to write popular compositions, including letrillas that highlight romantic and sentimental themes, or satirical ballads. These ballads are varied: Moorish, loving, or burlesque. Along with Lope de Vega and other poets, he contributed to what were called the New Ballads.

Conceptismo: Ingenious Thought and Wit

Characteristics of Conceptismo

Conceptismo is based on ingenious associations of ideas, words, and concepts. Writers primarily aimed for sharpness of thought and clever jokes. This style features plenty of puns, paronomasias (the inclusion of words with phonetic similarity), wordplay (the juxtaposition of words or phrases), paradoxes, antitheses, and hyperboles.

Francisco de Quevedo (Madrid, 1580-1645)

Its main representative is Francisco de Quevedo (Madrid, 1580-1645). His personality features characteristic Baroque dualism: on the one hand, a serious tone, deep moral and religious tension; and on the other, the satirical, grotesque, and poignant. His work is composed of a variety of metric forms: sonnets, songs, odes, epistles, and letrillas.

Thematic Groups in Quevedo's Work

• Poetry of Serious Tone

  With themes like the sneering of false appearances, the transience of earthly life, or the revocation of natural goods.

• Love Poetry

  While fitting into the Renaissance poetic tradition, Quevedo, a Petrarchist, knew how to treat the feeling of love with original and profound emotion.

• Mocking Satirical Poetry

  With topics ranging from more serious matters to the insignificant.

Félix Lope de Vega (Madrid, 1562-1635)

Literary Role and Versatility

Félix Lope de Vega (Madrid, 1562-1635) was an author not strictly attached to any of the aforementioned major literary currents. He was a complete author, writing novels and poetry, and was the great renovator of the theater, as we will see later.

Poetic Themes and Forms

As a poet, his themes are extremely varied: pastoral, mythological, historical, religious, and circumstantial. In lyrical poetry, he cultivated all kinds of romances, but mostly the Moorish type. In pastoral and passionate episodes, he reflected his turbulent emotional life. In cultured lyric, Lope wrote about three thousand sonnets inspired by themes and topics in the Renaissance tradition.