Ramon Llull and Ausiàs March: Catalan Literature
The Work of Ramon Llull
Work in Verse
Llull wrote The Council, approximately eight hundred verses, and two very human and sensitive poems: Desconhort and The Singing of Ramon. Desconhort is an important poetic work in which Llull takes stock of his life and confesses that he feels alone and despised.
Prose Work
- Book of Contemplation: An encyclopedic book that aims to prove the divine Trinity. It has 366 very long chapters, one for each day of the year.
- Book of the Order of Chivalry: Discusses the origin of nobility and chivalry, the knight’s office, and the symbolism involved in ceremonies and arms. It forms part of the first chapters of Tirant lo Blanc.
- Book of Evast, Aloma, and Blanquerna: Tells the life of Blanquerna, who initially intended to marry but preferred to follow a religious life.
- Book of the Lover and the Beloved: Part of Blanquerna, it is a literary masterpiece. The entire book is based on a great metaphor for meditation.
- Book of Wonders or Felix: Young Felix wants to know and learn things, revealing great wonders but also great injustices. Within this book is the Book of Beasts.
Ausiàs March
Poetry Characteristics
His poetry possesses strength and passion. One hundred and twenty-eight poems are linked by a common thread: love. Ausiàs March leaves behind troubadour canons and is conscientious, with a different concept of love. His language is rich and avoids Provençal style. It is direct, uncompromising, honest, provocative, and structured in perfect decasyllables with a caesura in the fourth syllable, verses known as “ausiasmarquins.” To communicate all the passion he carries within, he uses long comparisons that occupy an entire stanza. His poetry is characterized by the strength of its images: storms, furious seas, etc.
The Poet’s Solitude
There is a terrible contradiction in his concept of love: perfect love is spiritual, but he knows that he is human, and “flesh wants flesh.” This generates a serious internal struggle. This sadness increases when he tries to find a woman who understands his thoughts on the opposition between spiritual and bestial love. Faced with the ladies’ misunderstanding, Ausiàs chooses solitude. His poetry reflects the thoughts of a lonely man.
Work
- Love Songs: Uses a “senhal” (a pseudonym, following the troubadour tradition). Composed of eight-verse stanzas, decasyllabic with a masculine caesura in the fourth syllable.
- Songs of Death: Six poems dedicated to his second wife, with characteristics similar to the first.
- Spiritual Songs: “Estraus” verses (without rhyme). He addresses the lady as “you” and God as “You.” He invokes God, asking Him to help him overcome the anguish caused by her death.
March’s Themes
Love, death, and women.
Love and Death
Death is dealt with more forcefully in the Songs of Death. These six poems have no “senhal,” but it seems that they are dedicated to the same lady, correctly identified as his second wife, Joan Escorna. They are poems of deep pain. March talks about the absence of his beloved, the objects, and places that remind him of her. Everything speaks of her.
Love, personified, has him prisoner. It makes him lose his reason. Love is the master. He identifies three classes of love:
- Pure love (honest, spiritual): Golden arrow.
- Mad love (carnal, sinful, “delightful”): Silver arrow.
- Vain love (conjugal, “profitable”): Lead arrow.
He cannot live without love, but living like this causes him harm.