Spanish Renaissance Poetry: Forms, Themes, and Key Authors

The Popular Lyric: The conversation in popular lyrics was often captured in songbooks of the era. A common lyrical form is the Christmas carol.

Carol Structure

Carols typically feature opening lines that are partially or wholly repeated as a refrain. They usually have four or more verses. Two lines often rhyme: one with the refrain and another, called the back line, with the chorus.

Carols were used in performances on biblical themes.

The Romance

The romance form, with its series of eight-syllable lines in rhyming pairs (assonance in even lines), originates from epic verses. Both primitive and minstrel romances, created in the 15th century, are part of the old ballads. They are lyrical-epic in character and cover a variety of topics, including historical events (like El Cid), border conflicts with the Moorish kingdom of Granada, Breton themes (like Roland or Charlemagne), and lyrical-romantic affairs. Romances blend narrative and dialogue, characterized by simplicity and the use of repetition and parallelism.

Cultured or Courtly Poetry

Alongside popular lyrics and Castilian romances, a learned poetry emerged with a courtly air and palatial influences. This included Provencal troubadour poetry with short verses and amorous themes, and Italian allegorical poetry (like Dante's), with long poems on lofty themes, sometimes in high-art couplets.

Key Figures

• The Marquis of Santillana: His poetry, from the first half of the 15th century, can be classified into: poetry of Provençal influence (short verse and light rhythm) and poetry of Italian influence (moral-didactic poetry, proverbs inspired by classical judgments).
• Juan de Mena: His most important work is the long, moral-philosophical poem "Labyrinth of Fortune," also called "The 300" due to its nearly 300 verses.

The Dance of Death

The unique and anonymous "Dance of Death" emerged in this century. It features a skeleton summoning people of all ranks and social classes to remind them of their mortality and invite them to a macabre dance.

Petrarch and the Renaissance

Francesco Petrarch, the 14th-century Italian poet, embodies the ideals of Latin humanism. While he wrote several works, his most famous is his songbook, written in a Romance language. His verses are significant for Spanish poetry of the 14th and 16th centuries in Europe. The songbook contains over 350 poems inspired by his love for Laura de Noves, the idealized woman. The anguish of unrequited love is a central theme. This style of poetry is called Petrarchism.

Poetry in 16th Century Spain

In Spain, there were two main trends in 16th-century poetry: traditional Spanish and Italianate poetry.

Spanish Traditional Poetry

This includes courtly poetry and songbooks, which used popular forms like octosyllabic verses and romances. Both types of poetry continued to be cultivated, with the "Cancionero General" and popular lyric being prominent throughout the century.

Italianate Poetry

The influence of Italian poetry led to a metric restoration in Spain, introducing the eleven-syllable line (sonnet, triolet, and lira). It also brought the idealization of the beloved, intense expressions of love, the development of bucolic and pastoral themes, and a projection of these themes onto lyrical verses.

Garcilaso de la Vega

Garcilaso de la Vega is a Spanish poet known for his formal perfection and influence. He cultivated both traditional Castilian and Italianate poetry. His fame rests on his mastery of both styles. His work features Renaissance Latin influences, transparency, and poetic language, including the use of locus amoenus, female beauty, idealization, and carpe diem.

The Eclogues

Eclogues are bucolic poems in which two or more shepherds express their amorous complaints amidst an idealized nature.

The Sonnet

Garcilaso was one of the first and most representative authors of the sonnet in Spain.