Spanish Baroque Lyric Poetry

The Baroque Period (1598-1621)

The Baroque period (approximately 1598-1621) is a time of sinking pessimism. The utopia of man as the center of the universe fades. The concern over time is the Baroque subject par excellence. Antithesis and contrast are enhanced; these elements are also characteristic. The period seeks to surprise.

Trends in Baroque Lyric Poetry

In Baroque lyric poetry, we distinguish three trends:

• The most pure Baroque style is Conceptismo, which finds its greatest exponents in Quevedo and Baltasar Gracián. In Conceptismo, the classical balance between expression and content is broken in favor of the latter. It uses paradoxes, neologisms, antithesis, and resources to achieve humor.
• Second, the Culteranismo style is peculiar to Góngora. Traditionally, it has been perceived as contrary to Conceptismo, due to the enmity of its greatest exponents, Góngora and Quevedo, but this is not so. Culteranismo is an evolution of Conceptismo.
• Some authors continue the line of balance between expression and content from the Renaissance.

Lope de Vega (1562-1635)

Considered one of our best writers, Lope de Vega wrote both popular ballads and *letrillas*, as well as moralizing or burlesque sonnets, love poems, or religious verse. His principal works include: Rimas, Rimas Sacras, and Rimas Humanas y Divinas del Licenciado Tomé de Burguillos. His poems tend towards classicism and seek balance between form and substance. Lope poeticized all the events of his life.

Francisco de Quevedo (1580-1645)

Quevedo is enormously concerned by the problems of his time. His controversial nature is characterized by contrasts: he is capable of the most atrocious mockery and the highest feeling, the most critical doubt and the deepest reflection. His poetry is one of the most dense and surprising of the century. His work was published posthumously in 1649 under the title Parnaso Español. It collects philosophical, political, love, and burlesque poems, where he shows his distrust of men. He is also concerned with aging and death ('cotidie morimur' - we die daily).

Luis de Góngora (Culteranismo)

Góngora's work can be classified as only lyric poetry:

Góngora's Works

• Minor poems: *letrillas*, *romances*, and sonnets.
• Major poems: Fábula de Píramo y Tisbe, Panegírico al Duque de Lerma, Soledades, Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea.

Soledades

His most extensive work, it remained unfinished. It was intended to have 4 parts telling the story of a pilgrim through 4 age groups (youth, adolescence, maturity, and old age). Only the first part and the beginning of the second were written. Composed in *silvas*.

Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea

63 octaves in which he tells the story of the Cyclops Polyphemus, who falls in love with the young nymph Galatea, who despises him because she loves the shepherd Acis.

Critical Periods in Góngora's Work

Critics have identified two periods in his work: the Mannerist period (up to 1610) and the second, from Culteranismo.