Rimas y declaraciones poéticas

by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer

Book by Becquer, Gustavo Adolfo, Lopez Estrada, Francisco, Lopez Garcia-Berdoy, Maria Teresa

Genres: Poetry, Spanish Literature, Classics

279 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published February 19, 2018

About the author

Gustavo Adolfo Domínguez Bastida, better known as Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, was a Spanish post-romanticist writer of poetry, short stories, and nonfiction now considered one of the most important figures in Spanish literature. He adopted the alias of Bécquer as his brother Valeriano Bécquer, a painter, had done earlier. He was associated with the post-romanticism movement and wrote while realism was enjoying success in Spain. He was moderately well known during his life, but it was after his death that most of his works were published.

He is best known for his intimate, lyrical poems and for his legends; more importantly, he is remembered for the verbal decor with which he impregnated everything he wrote. A Romantic poet above all else, Bécquer infused every single line he wrote with sensorial intensity, and his Legends still serve today as some of the most brilliant examples of prose poetry. Always including elements of the supernatural, Bécquer imbued his legends with a gothic sensibility, depicting gnomes, ghosts, enchanted fortresses and monasteries, and men and women who succumb to vanity or desire.

Other lesser-known, but none less valuable, works include his "Cartas Desde mi Celda" ("Letters from my Cell") and "Cartas Literarias a una Mujer" ("Literary Epistles to a Woman") which adopt an intimate, contemplative style similar to Thoreau in "Walden." Here we find him ruminating at length on the subjects that characterize his poetic works: love, the purpose of art, folklore, the seductive pull of ancient ruins--and, of course, women.


An essential figure in the canon of Hispanic letters, and an obligatory reading in any Spanish-language High School, he is today considered the founder of modern Spanish lyricism. Bécquer's influence on 20th century poets of the Spanish language is felt in the works of poets such as Octavio Paz, Giannina Braschi, Antonio Machado, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Pablo Neruda and many more.

Reviews

[Eugenia Andino · Rating 1 out of 5]

Becquer is evil, end of story. Other countries, in the Romantic lottery, got proper writers, like Keats. Spain was stuck with this guy, who gave poetry a bad name with his easy rhymes and sentimentality. I would ban him from schools.

[Francisco · Rating 5 out of 5]

¡¡¡Es Bécquer!!!

[Juan Alarcon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bécquer es un poeta único. Me encanta su intimismo, la fuerza y la sinceridad de los sentimientos propuestos. A la vez es un maestro de la expresión de ideas luengas en pocas palabras. Me llamó mucho la atención del desarrollo de la rima asonante y los decasílabos, endecasílabos y heptasílabos alternados.
Es, sí, a veces empalagoso leer una y otra vez al enamorado que nadie lo pela.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bellísimo, Bécquer es un maestro

[Lukass · Rating 3 out of 5]

Si no es como Bécquer no quiero nada

[an_other_carla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Smash

[erl · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I had read this book at age 20, I might have been smitten. But I am old now, and jaded and cynical. Plus I read the prologue. I know that Becquer was a married man who wrote these poems and letters to his many mistresses. Although I did see a couple of short poems that I liked, he's nothing but a chamuyo mujeriego (flirting womanizer). He also insists that women are poetry. News flash; women are PEOPLE. No wonder he burnt out on so many so quickly. He comes off as a sex addict who lives for the thrill of the chase. The prologue states he died of TB. I wonder if it was really syphilis. All in all, this collection left a bad taste in my mouth. What a jerk.