Verb Periphrasis and Medieval Lyric Poetry in the Iberian Peninsula

Verb Periphrasis

The verbal periphrasis category is comprised of two forms of verbal play; conjointly, they are the core function of the verb phrase.

Function of the Non-Auxiliary Personal Verb

Classes: infinitive, gerund, participle periphrasis.

Classification Based on Meaning

• Temporals: Refer to the beginning, development, conclusion, or repetition of the action.
• Modals: Indicate the speaker's attitude towards the verbal action, which occurs either as a duty, a potential, or a capacity.

Popular and Cultivated Lyric Poetry in the Middle Ages

During the Middle Ages, lyric poetry in various Romance languages of the Iberian Peninsula developed into two main components: a popular one and a cultivated one.

Popular Lyric Poetry

The collection of anonymous poems sung by the people and transmitted orally, which emerged in the Iberian Peninsula in the 11th century, is known as popular lyric poetry in the Middle Ages. There are three major manifestations of popular lyric poetry in the peninsula:

• The jarchas, written in the Mozarabic dialect, the language of the Christians of al-Andalus (from the 11th century).
• The cantigas de amigo, written in Galician-Portuguese (12th-14th centuries).
• The villancicos, written in Castilian (14th-15th centuries).

Formal and Thematic Features of Popular Lyric Poetry

Popular lyric texts present some common features:

• They are short compositions.
• They have a love theme and are in the voice of a woman who complains about the absence or loss of her beloved.

Cultivated Lyric Poetry

The medieval lyric concept, which arose under the courts and palaces of the nobility, is composed of poems by concrete and instructed authors that disseminated these very early compositions in writing. The first poets of the peninsula were troubadours from the Romance-French region of Provence. There are three outbreaks of serious literature in the peninsula: troubadour poetry (Catalonia, 12th century), love songs (Galicia, 13th-14th centuries), and cancionero poetry (Castile, 15th century).

Formal and Thematic Characteristics of Cultivated Lyric Poetry

They also have common features:

• Their compositions are more extensive than those of popular lyric poetry.
• Many also address a love theme, but the self-issuers are, in general, men.

Cancionero Poetry and Courtly Love

The most frequent subject of 15th-century Castilian poetry is love, in particular, a conception of love called courtly love. It is governed by a series of conventions or features:

• The lover experiences an intense passion of love, crashing into an obstacle.
• The lady is not available, or it is an impossible love (she can be married).
• Love appears identified with suffering.
• The relationship between the gallant and the lady is like that between a vassal and a lord: it is based on service, loyalty, and subjugation of the man to the lady.
• Although the aim is to meet erotic love, it is not expressed explicitly: it is hinted at through words such as worship, glory as a reward, etc., acquiring a sexual connotation.

Jorge Manrique

The most outstanding work of the cultivated lyric poetry of the 15th-century Castilian is Coplas a la muerte de su padre, by Jorge Manrique. The verses on the death of his father are an elegy or lament for the death of Rodrigo Manrique, the author's father. The poem consists of forty stanzas, called coplas de pie quebrado, which can be organized into two parts.

Structure and Themes of the Verses

Part One (Verses I-XXIV)

It deals with general ideas about the passage of time and death:

• Tempus fugit (time flies): awareness of the transience of human existence.
• Homo viator (the traveling man): the consideration of earthly life as a journey toward eternal life.
• The equalizing power of death that awaits all human beings without distinction of age or condition.
• Ubi sunt? (where are they?): the question of the whereabouts of material wealth or famous people to emphasize the destructive ability of time.

Part Two (Verses XXV-XL)

It is centered on the figure of the father:

• Three new poems in praise of the deceased, Don Rodrigo Manrique.
• The importance of fame.
• Serene acceptance of death after a full life.