Spanish Romantic Poetry: Espronceda and Bécquer's Literary Legacy

The Romantic Position in Spanish Literature

The Romantic position presents a flowering later than other genres. Early works are characterized by Neoclassicism. The features of poetry in the first half of the nineteenth century were characterized by its mix of genres and styles, and the metric polymetry shown in the metric scales and polystrophism.

José de Espronceda's Poetry

Espronceda's work extols freedom and individualism, central tenets of Romanticism.

Key Works and Themes

• The Pirate Song and The Pauper: Extol freedom and individualism.
• Cossack Song: Encourages combat against the degradation of a Europe corrupted by money.
• El Estudiante de Salamanca: The story is based on the myth of the trickster Don Juan. The sinner witnesses his own funeral, the round of specters, and the woman who happens to be a skeleton. The protagonist is Félix de Montemar, haughty, a womanizer, and a gambler, who seduces and abandons Elvira.
• The Devil World (El Diablo Mundo): This work explores the meaning of existence in an indifferent and cruel society. It is characterized by its fragmentary nature, digressions, and thematic and stylistic diversity.

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer's Poetry (Rimas)

Bécquer's poetic renewal lies in creating an intimate, short poetry, stripped of apparent artifice and characterized by simplicity.

Bécquer's Poetic Themes

• Love: While Bécquer sometimes offers a cheerful and optimistic vision, the expression of pain for a perfect, ideal, and unreachable love predominates.
• Loneliness, Anguish, and Death: Loving frustration leads to loneliness, linked to the anguish of living. This pain is so extreme that the lyrical ego yearns for poetic dissolution in nature.
• Sleep and Nature: There is a fusion between the world and sleep. Nature takes different formulations: sometimes it is simple, sometimes it shows marked indifference to human feelings, or it expresses the feelings of the lyrical ego. Nature appears as a constituent part of his general themes and is presented in constant motion. Images related to light and air acquire particular significance.
• Poetry and Literary Creation: Bécquer outlines his ideas on poetry. The sources of poetry are mainly women and love. He even suggests that the universe is poetic. Regarding creation, the poet describes a subsequent process of literary rewriting and expresses the conflict between inspiration and the difficulty of expression. He manifests the inadequacy of language for poetic expression.

Bécquer's Style

His style is distinguished by its tendency toward naturalness and the manifestation of the essential.

Bécquer's Legends (Prose)

Bécquer also wrote prose, which includes the Legends (Leyendas), many of which were published in the press. The legends are classified as sometimes combining wonder with realism. Most of the stories take place in Spain, preferably in the Middle Ages. Love, woman, death, and the scary (supernatural) are the most important issues.