Spanish Baroque Poetry: Culteranismo, Lope de Vega, and Góngora

Culteranismo and Formal Complication in Baroque Poetry

Among the poetry of Garcilaso and Góngora, notable differences can be observed. There is a clear break between the Renaissance and Baroque periods. From the second half of the 17th century, new trends in poetry unfolded. Thus, the cultist poetics of Herrera, for example, led to the Culteranismo tendency, which became a dominant aesthetic in Spanish Baroque literature. These are strictly opposed movements that are part of a general aesthetic sensibility, pursuing originality and the admiration of the reader through wit. This breaks the form and equilibrium between classical postulates and the content of Renaissance aesthetics.

Conceptista writers explored the possibilities of language, deriving meanings from concepts. Culteranismo, above all, prioritizes formal beauty. The syntax can be complicated with Latinate turns, violent hyperbatons, and exaggerated enjambments. Its vocabulary is original, incorporating numerous lexical items of American origin.

Themes of Baroque Poetry

Although these issues could be very different, the Culterano tendency shows a predilection for classical roots, particularly mythology. This Baroque poetry was so diverse thematically that it often overflowed with recreations of classical motifs. Indeed, it encompassed poetic love, moral reflections, and history. It cultivated not only lyric poetry but also epic.

Lope de Vega: A Master of Spanish Verse

Lope de Vega was a great poet, whose poems varied in dramatic scope. He composed his last two genre texts inspired by Italian Renaissance epics, such as Angelica's Beauty and Jerusalem Conquered. He collected his compositions in Rhymes, Sacred and Human Rhymes, and Divine Rhymes of the Licentiate Burguillos. This book showcases his various lyrical facets as a vitalist poet, even challenging Góngora's influence. His use of the romance and the sonnet is particularly strong. His romances were very famous and collected, even anonymously. These Petrarchan rhymes are part of the tradition, and some details of his poems reveal a deep spirituality, which contrasts with many profanities in his other works. Thus, the book is varied among sonnets and romances. This variety is also reflected in the internal structure of texts, which follows the liturgy, whether religious or secular. The eclogue is a product of the age of melancholy, which sometimes becomes a mockery. Lope de Vega's Rhymes of Burguillos unfolds with a fictional persona that appears on occasion.

Lope de Vega's Poetic Characteristics

• Plays mixing comedy and tragedy.
• Use of lyrical elements derived from traditional poetry, often created by Lope himself.
• On many occasions, the structural basis of the argument supporting the work can serve to create a comic or tragic atmosphere.
• Besides defending the comedia nueva and its language, his comedies are varied for the public and possess some linguistic complexity.

Luis de Góngora: The Apex of Culteranismo

Born in Córdoba in 1561, Luis de Góngora came from a wealthy and educated family. He studied law in Salamanca. Returning to Córdoba, he began his career in the church, holding ecclesiastical benefits, but he never renounced his literary tastes. His poems began to become famous, and he settled in Madrid, considered the best poet of his time. His life at court was not easy, although he obtained the royal chaplaincy. His life became luxurious to the point of ruin, leading to gambling and debts. He was ill and returned to Córdoba, where he died the following year.

Góngora's Literary Work

He was primarily a lyric poet, though he wrote two plays, Dr. Carlino and The Firmness of Isabela, works that depart from Lope de Vega's theatrical model. His lyrical work circulated both orally and in manuscript during his lifetime, only published after his death, sometimes accompanied by scholarly comments. In 1609, his intention was to create a poetic language through the accumulation of rhetorical devices in major works like The Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea, Solitudes, and even a royal octave poem in praise of the Duke of Lerma.

Minor Art Poetry

These are short poems that were very popular at the time and continued to be appreciated by Neoclassicists, who valued the lyrical poem Córdoba. It is common in choruses or short verses to treat a serious subject with a humorous or satirical tone. His romances mix the serious and the burlesque. Among his romances, The Tale of Pyramus and Thisbe is a long composition that most prominently summarizes the features of Culteranismo poetry.

Major Art Poetry

These are longer sonnets that follow the classical model, sometimes using distinct formulas such as loving, moral, or mock-satirical.