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POETRY

LYRIC

Generalities

Lyric poetry remained faithful to neoclassical aesthetics until well into the 19th century. Only after 1835, and with few precedents, did the poetic panorama begin to be renewed under the influence of romanticism, first through magazines and, somewhat later, between 1840 and 1843, with the publication of the main collections of poems.

Poetry became during Romanticism a literary medium especially suited to the expression of subjectivity, although the desire for originality sometimes tended to hinder the sincere expression of feelings. Descriptive poetry was widely cultivated, whether about landscapes or cities, and also narrative poetry, especially that on historical themes, generally inspired by the Christian, Germanic and medieval tradition, whether in short formats (romance) or in longer ones (legend). The fable, with a moralizing tone, tended, for its part, to costumbrismo.

In the formal field, the poets of Romanticism openly confronted the baroque extravagance that the Rococo aesthetic still took from Góngora. In this, the Romantics coincided with the formal purification work undertaken by the Neoclassics, promoting a symbolic, but colorful and musical language. Nevertheless, some Neoclassical Latinisms continued to be used, such as fulgido, febril, vivido, siquier, cuanto, de continuo, but especially those endowed with a dense emotional charge, such as agonia, devaneo, delirio, hysterical, frenzy, illusory, magical, languid, fetid, fatal, fateful, etc. To this must be added some archaisms such as rotodo, deparecer, alredor and even vulgarisms.

On the other hand, there is a certain taste for experimentation based on the neoclassical tradition. It is common, for example, to use less frequent meters, especially short ones, and also, in the same composition, changes of meter and even of stanza, thus foreshadowing the formal freedom typical of Post-Romanticism and Modernism. Some specific stanzas were widely used, such as the quartet, the tercet, the lyre, the silva, the royal octave and its variant, the bermudina, invented by Salvador Bermúdez de Castro (1817-1837), whose fourth and eighth verses are acute. Polymetry or the use of ascending or descending scales is another typical formal characteristic of Romantic poetry.

Precedents

The so-called poetic school of Salamanca, with leading figures, Meléndez Valdés and Jovellanos Above all, as a backdrop, it had a special significance for the transitional period towards romanticism. The activity of the incorruptible liberal Manuel José Quintana (1772-1857), for example, is perhaps the best example of the transition between the Enlightenment and Romanticism in the field of poetry. His Poesías patrióticas, corrected and augmented in 1813, are an example of fidelity to classicist aesthetics in compositions that, however, exude an unbridled political fervour. Francisco Sánchez Barbero (1764-1819) is another good example of continuity in the cultivation of eighteenth-century aesthetic moulds in poems with a high-sounding pre-romantic tone. The case of Juan Nicasio Gallego (1777-1853), close to the formal care of the Sevillian poets, or the restrained José Somoza (1781-1852), more focused on bucolic themes.

For their part, the authors who belonged to the Seville poetic school practiced a markedly classicist poetry, although tinged with a certain initial romanticism. After Manuel María de Arjona (1771-1820), the true initiator of the group, the French-sounding José Marchena (1768-1821) is a good example of this, as shown by his translations of Ossián. Félix José Reinoso (1772-1841) maintained the neo-Herrerian clichés to incorporate some pre-romantic features at the end of his work. More significant is the activity of Manuel Maria del Mármol (1772-1841) maintained the neo-Herrerian clichés to incorporate some pre-romantic features at the end of his work. More significant is the activity of José María Blanco y Crespo, better known as Blanco White (1775-1841), perhaps the most famous member of the school, developed a poetic work, however, little studied, which shows, especially in its final stage, a fully romantic sentimental and metaphysical expressiveness. The great poet of this transitional period is, however, Alberto Lista (1775-1849), teacher of many young romantics, and author of markedly neoclassical tastes and illustrated themes, his work remained within an eclecticism that only timidly hinted at later developments towards romanticism.

Other authors, who share this same trajectory between enlightened good taste and romantic agitation, although not framed in either of the two schools mentioned, are Juan Bautista de Arriaza (1770-1837), Manuel de Cabanyes (1808-1833), Francisco Martínez de la Rosa (1787-1862), José Joaquín de Mora (1783-1864), Juan María de Maury (1772-1845) or Bernardino Fernández de Velasco, duque de Frías (1783-1851).

The classicist persistence of young poets

The influence of eighteenth-century poetry, especially that of Quintana, Cienfuegos y Lista, on the young romantics was notable. After an initial youthful phase, with a clear classicist tone, the poetry of Mariano José de Larra (1809-1837), scarce and not very original, underwent an evolution that led him towards less profound themes and a lighter meter at the beginning of the 1930s.

Ángel de Saavedra, Duque de Rivas (1791-1865) is the author of poetic compositions with clear reminiscences of the poets of the 16th century, of Garcilaso or Lope, but in line with the neoclassical tastes of Meléndez Valdés y Lista. Nevertheless, his taste for local colour and a certain sentimental agitation already constitute elements of clear romantic roots.

Juan Arolas Bonet (1805-1849) published his first works with a marked eighteenth-century taste, surprising for the erotic tone they adopted in his first stage, before cultivating compositions of historical inspiration in a second stage, to end with works clearly inspired by Byron, Lamartine or Victor Hugo, already fully romantic.

The Cadiz-born Antonio García Gutiérrez (1813-1884) initially cultivated a poetry that closely followed the path of Quintana y Cienfuegos, both on romantic and political themes, although perhaps those of a narrative and historical nature were of the highest quality, especially those on an orientalist theme.

The neoclassical influence is evident in the first poetic work of Eugenio de Ochoa (1815-1872), although he later moved to areas more akin to romanticism in compositions with a marked didactic tone.

Espronceda

José de Espronceda (1808-1842) was the quintessential Spanish romantic poet, something that not only his generation, but even he himself was aware of. A fervent liberal, actively involved in the political circumstances of his time, the author from Extremadura contributed a remarkable wealth of innovations to poetry, among which stand out metric modulations, interactive syntactical structures, the use of innovative images, the fusion of contrasting expressive registers and, above all, the introduction of the “dramatic monologue”.

Initiated in the framework of neoclassicism, between 1822 and 1827, after some initial stylistic exercises, his youthful poetry began to become more personal and committed until he assumed the plan and the octaves that Alberto Lista, his teacher, gave him for the epic composition El Pelayo, a work that he would leave unfinished after a decade of work. The discovery during his exile (1828-1833) of Ossián and the “troubadour style”, of conservative roots, introduced him to early romanticism, but without completely abandoning the classicist streak. His lyrics from those years became increasingly intimate, tinged with medieval and exotic settings until he published, in 1835, the Canción del pirata, with which he definitively abandoned classicism and also, incidentally, the historicist vein.

From then on, a new stage begins, genuinely romantic, characterized by the poetic expression of the liberal principles of desire for freedom, humanitarianism, absence of religious feeling, denunciation of social conventions, etc. Several poems of disappointment in love collected in his work Poesías belong to this same stage. (1840).

El estudiante de Salamanca (1835?-1840?) is the expression of a radical Romanticism, the descent into hell of a rebel, in a composition formally marked by the mixture of genres and the alternation of meters, among which the virtuosity of the metric scale that closes the work stands out.

The diablo mundo (1840-?) is a long, unfinished, fragmentary, inarticulate poem in which an old man rejuvenated or, better yet, reborn in Adam sets out to discover the evil inherent in the men who make up society and, ultimately, the world.

Esproncedian poets

Although they did not constitute a school, there is a group of poets united by their compositions filled with melancholy and subjectivism, which clearly follow in the footsteps of Espronceda. Notable among them are Antonio Ros de Olano, Marquis of Guad-el-Jelú (1808-1887), Enrique Gil y Carrasco (1815-1846), Salvador Bermúdez de Castro (1817-1837), Gabriel García Tassara (1817-1875) and Miguel de los Santos Álvarez (1818-1892).

Other poets

It is worth remembering at least the names of some other minor but significant representatives of romantic poetry in Spain, such as Nicomedes Pastor Díaz (1811-1863), Jacinto Salas y Quiroga (1813-1849), Eugenio de Ochoa (1815-1836) or Pablo Piferrer y Fábregas (1818-1848).

José Zorrilla

José Maximiliano Zorrilla y Moral (1817-1893) was the author of lyrical poetry, initially greatly influenced by the odes of Lamartine. It was only after his exile that he would return to the cultivation of this genre, now with a much more original tone, in compositions prepared in the form of epistles in which he deals with themes that are common in all his work, such as the role of the writer, his militant Catholic faith or his equally deep patriotism.

The epic genre includes both epic stories, such as The Legend of El Cid or Granada -although unfinished, the most outstanding-, as well as some versified tales of a moralizing nature, his well-known historical legends, possibly the most outstanding of his poetic production. Written mostly between 1838 and 1845, titles such as A Buen Judge, Mejor Witness, Un testigo de cobre, Margarita la tornera or El Capitán Montoya stand out.

EPIC

Generalities

The discovery of ancient poetry throughout Europe, considered the origin of true national poetry, is accompanied by the recovery of chivalric literature and, with it, the Bible, taken as a model for Eastern literature.

Despite the polymetrism and polystrophism of some authors, which would evolve towards the innovative adoption of metric scales, the thesis advocated by Agustín Durán in the Preliminary Discourse of Romancero de romances caballerescos e históricas antes al siglo XVIII (1832, included in Romancero general, (1849-1850), would end up triumphing, in line with what was defended in Discourse on the influence that modern criticism has had on the decline of ancient Spanish theatre (1828) and also by Eugenio de Ochoa in Tesoro de los romanceros y cancioneros españoles (1838), where he defends the incorporation of all the primitivism of the romances, popular, flexible and very “romantic”, to the national lyric poetry.

The production of epic style is dominated during Romanticism by compositions of romances and historical romances, brief narrations of some episode of a historical or legendary nature, generally in assonant octosyllables, especially since the publication of Historical romances (1841) by Duque de Rivas, collection of affected “national episodes” with a disenchanted tone, full of passionate heroes who fail in their efforts against fatal destiny. They usually have a marked romantic and archaic tone, not a little monotonous, although crossed by a rich adjectivization, especially evident in the profusion of epithetic phrases. Legends inspired by the national epic initiated by Telesforo de Trueba y Cossío (1799-1835) in The Romance of History. Spain (1830), translated into Spanish as Romantic Spain. Collection of anecdotes and novelistic events taken from the History of Spain (1840).

On the formal level, polystrophism dominates, with narrative parts alternating with others of a more lyrical and narrative tone, digressions and the combination of simple diction with a more rhetorical tone, as well as themes taken from oral or bookish tradition together with those from the author’s imagination. Other shorter poems take the form of the story, like a brief polymetric narrative poem, which revolves around some event of a mysterious or gothic nature, sometimes of popular or erudite inspiration, and ends with an unexpected ending.

The influence of the trouvadour genre, of French origin, was important, with the precedent of El canto del cruzado by José de Espronceda (c. 1832), developed from the 1830s onwards and influenced El bulto vestido de negro capuz (1835) by Patricio de la Escosura (1807-1878). Al mismo género pertenecen Ricardo (1835) by Julián Romea, El guerrero y su querida (1836) by Marcelino Azlor, El sayón de Gregorio Romero Larrañaga o Blanca by Juan Francisco Díaz, The troubadour by María Josefa Massanés (1837) or The two rivals (1840) by García Gutiérrez.

Precedents

The first stage, which covers roughly up to 1820, is dominated by an exalted and patriotic epic of heroic poems, formally continuing the classicist parameters, but inspired by themes taken directly from the War of Independence or rather by historical subjects, medieval above all, which nevertheless referred to the contemporary situation.

A good example of this are works such as El paso honroso (1812/1820), on the chivalrous episode of Suero de Quiñones, a work still tinged with classicism, Ángel de Saavedra, Duque de Rivas (1791-1865); Doña Elvira de Guzmán (ca. 1815), de Meléndez Valdés; and Ommíada (1816), by Gaspar Mª de Nava, Conde de Noroña (1760-1815), on the life of Abd al-Rahman I, founder of the Emirate of Córdoba, a composition with vague oriental reminiscences, in the style of Tassio, but still constrained by rigorously classicist guidelines. This cycle also includes both La Alonsíada (1818), about the conquest of Menorca by the monarch Alfonso III of Aragon in 1287, by the historian Juan Antonio Ramis y Ramis (1746-1819); as well as two other compositions by the former Jesuit Pedro Montengón (1745-1824), La conquista de México por Hernán Cortés (1820) and The loss of Spain repaired by King Pelayo (1820).

The break with classicism

The emergence of the narrative romance from 1820 onwards, combined with imitations of Ossian, served as a preamble to the definitively romantic epic that began to develop from 1834 onwards. The increasingly frequent selection of subjects with medieval roots, combined with the predominant use of the octave, which remained the main metre, set the tone for this first phase. The growing popularity of this genre, largely influenced by the recovery of the traditional ballad, was renewed shortly afterwards thanks to its approach to novels, giving rise to a definitive break with the schemes of classicism.

Ángel de Saavedra, Duque de Rivas (1791-1865), After some early trials, such as those of Florinda (1824-1826), influenced by El Rodrigo de Pedro Montengón, and El faro de Malta (1829); achieves his most outstanding work in this field with El moro expósito or Córdoba y Burgos en el siglo décimo (1830-1834), based on the legend of the Infantes de Lara. Among the main virtues of this extensive work composed in quartets of assonant hendecasyllables, it is worth mentioning the skillful mixture of the marvelous and the everyday, as well as the use of resources close to the novels of W. Scott, especially in the construction of the plot. It was, however, in Historical romances (1841) where Saavedra managed to synthesize the typical scheme of the historical romance of Spanish Romanticism, largely based on the imitation of ancient romances, which would come to serve as a model for numerous other authors.

Juan Arolas Bonet (1805-1849) cultivated the genre between 1837 and 1847, creating a series of compositions of notable quality, such as La Leyenda del Cid, FelipeII and Antonio Pérez, El anillo de Carlomagno and others of oriental and fantastic inspiration that stand out for the fluid use of polymetrism and a certain cosmopolitan taste..

Salvador Bermúdez de Castro, Duke of Ripalda (1817-1883), published some Poetic Essays (1840), which collected various compositions, marked by a certain spiritual uneasiness.

As historical novels in verse, the legend was a type of composition that shared the trajectory of the romance within romanticism. José Joaquín de Mora collected his in Leyendas españolas (1840), where he makes clear his admiration for Byron. Of the 20 poems that make up the collection, Don Opas is perhaps the most representative.

Gregorio Romero Larrañaga (1814-1872) grouped his poetic production in Poesías (1841), the second volume of which, entitled Cuentos históricas, leyendas antiguas y tradición populares (Historical Tales, Ancient Legends and Popular Traditions), contains his narrative compositions. This was followed, in the same field, by Historias chivalrescas españolas (Spanish Chivalric Stories) (1843).

From Pablo Piferrer y Fábregas (1818-1848) it is worth highlighting Romances en lenguaje Antiguo (1842), whose title responds to the use of archaic linguistic formulas (fabla), which was followed by two other collections, El ermitaño de Montserrat (1842) and Las Navas de Tolosa (1842).

Of the poetic compositions due to Antonio García Gutiérrez (1813-1884) two historical romances stand out, El conde de Saldaña (1842) and
Los siete condes de Lara (1844). Son también dignos de mención otros dos autores, Antonio Ribot y Fontseré (1813-1871), who published the
Romancero del Conde-Duque (1842) and the epic Solimán y Zaida o el precio de una venganza (1849), and
Vicente Boix y Ricarte (1813-1880), author of Guillem Sorolla (1850).

José Justiniano y Arribas and his work
Roger de Flor (1854) corresponds to the phase of affectation of the heroic poem genre. Evaristo López, author of
La Alfonsiada o la conquista de Toledo (1864), is an example of this, as are also La ciudad eterna o los cristianos (1848) by Francisco Lorente y El hijo de María (1852) by
Vicente Álvarez Aranda,both of religious themes. Of more recent inspiration is El abrazo de Vergara (1858) by
Marcial Busquets, about Carlism, and, in particular, several poems about the war in Africa. Here, the following stand out: La ciudad eterna o los cristianos (1860) by
Francisco Garcés Marcilla and two other works of Miguel Blanco Guerrero, La Guerra de África (1860) and
La Atlántida (1860).

Legend was also cultivated, not without success, as shown in Madrid dramático (1870) by Antonio Hurtado y Valhondo or the compositions by Manuel Cano y Cueto contained in Leyendas y tradiciónes de Sevilla (1875) and in Tradiciones sevillanas (1895).

Finally, in this stage of transition to realism, collections of romances proliferated, whether in legendary ballads with a monographic theme, such as Romancero de Numancia (1866) by
Antonio Pérez Rioja or Romancero de Cristóbal Colón (1866) by
Ventura García Escobar; whether in general ballads, such as El romancero histórico. Vidas de españoles ilustres (1859) by Alfonso García Tejero (1818-1890), El romancero de los once Alfonsos (1863) by
Ricardo Velasco y Ayllón–Eduardo Fuentes o Ecos de gloria. Leyendas históricas (1863) by
Faustina Sáez de Melgar (1834-1895). Junto a ellos aparecieron otras colecciones colectivas de variada inspiración. Romancero de la Guerra de África (1860) and
Romancero español contemporáneo (1860) they turn to contemporary themes, while Romancero de Jaén (1862) takes on a markedly local tone. In short, Romancero español. Collection of historical and traditional romances (1873) or
Novísimo romancero español (ca. 1878-1879) the old molds of traditionally inspired romance continued.

OTHER POETIC FORMS

Fable

Closely linked to the classicist literature of the Enlightenment – it is enough to recall the figures of Iriarte and Samaniego – the fable was far from disappearing during the rise of romanticism. The use of versified allegories for moralizing purposes continued to maintain a notable acceptance in the 19th century. Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch (1803-1880) is undoubtedly the best representative of this and its Fábulas puestas en verso castellano (1848) its most perfect example.

Satire

Festive and burlesque poetry with a mordant and satirical intention was cultivated by numerous authors of the Romantic period. However, without forgetting figures such as Wenceslao Ayguals de Izco (1801-1873) or
Juan Martínez de Villergas (1816-1894), is
Manuel Bretón de Herreros (1796-1873) the one who perhaps knew how to get the most out of this genre. La desvergüenza is perhaps his most successful composition in this field.

LITERATURE

AULLÓN de HARO, P. (1988) La poesía en el siglo XIX (Romanticismo y Realismo), Madrid, Taurus.

AYUSO RIVERA, J. (1958) El concepto de Muerte en la poesía romántica española, Madrid, Fundación Universitaria Española.

COSSÍO, J. M.ª (1960) Cincuenta años de poesía española (1850-1900), Madrid, Espasa-Calpe, 2. vols.

NIEMEYER, K. (1992) La poesía del premodernismo español, Madrid, CSIC.

PEÑA, P. J. de la (1986) La poesía del siglo XIX. Estudio, Valencia, Victor Anega editor

URRUTIA, J. (ed.) (1985) Poesía española del siglo XIX, Madrid, Cátedra.

LÓPEZ CASTRO, A. (2003) Poetas españoles del siglo XIX, León, Universidad de León.