Rosalía de Castro: Life, Works, and Literary Impact
Rosalía de Castro: A Life’s Journey
Rosalía de Castro was the daughter of unknown parents, a fact that significantly impacted her life. She went to live with her uncles, and contact with the rural world introduced her to the Galician language. At 14, her mother took her to live with her, which Rosalía deeply appreciated. She moved to Madrid to escape criticism, where she published her first book, La Flor. In 1858, Rosalía married Manuel Murguía. They had seven children; tragically, one child died at age 4. After her mother’s death, she published A mi madre. The couple changed residence several times, eventually settling in Galicia, where she remained until her death. She died young from a slow cancer.
Rosalía de Castro’s Character
Rosalía had a strong and intense character; she was irritable and harsh. She showed hatred towards anything she considered unfair. However, she was also generous and sympathetic to the disadvantaged. Rosalía was not interested in social recognition. Her detachment from public life led her to express herself through writing. She had a conception of the world marked by bitterness, pain, sadness, and pessimism, stemming from her challenging life.
Cantares Gallegos: A Landmark Work
Her first book of poems in Galician, Cantares Gallegos, saw Rosalía start with popular song forms and then expand upon them. The book is written in a rural Galician dialect, featuring abundant lexical Castilianisms. It uses a lively and expressive oral language. It was published by her husband, Manuel Murguía.
Rosalía aimed to elevate the Galician language, connecting with farmers, sailors, and others whose native tongue was Galician. The purpose of the book is to show the beauty of the Galician land and denounce injustices against its people. The book’s tone is largely optimistic, carefree, and joyful.
Follas Novas: Psychological Depth
Follas Novas is a work written in Galician which reveals Rosalía’s psychological complexity. It is divided into five parts, and its best poems reveal her subjectivity, her inner world, and pressing social issues. The work is imbued with Rosalía’s pain, suffering, despair, and loneliness. Death is often presented as the only solution. The poems deal with social issues like emigration and evoke empathy for abandoned women.
En las orillas del Sar: Final Reflections
En las orillas del Sar is Rosalía’s last book. Its themes and tone align with Follas Novas. The book exemplifies poetry marked by disappointment and hurt. It is Rosalía’s poetry taking refuge in itself, grappling with pain and loneliness.
Key Themes in Rosalía de Castro’s Poetry
- Pain: Supporting the vulnerable, solidarity with women and men, the harshness of life often linked to a lack of paternal support or guidance.
- Saudade: Loneliness as a destiny, the isolation of human existence, the consciousness of those who truly understand, and the absence of loved ones, land, and home.
- Religion: Her poetry is ambiguous regarding her personal belief, yet her religious questioning is genuine, full of contradictions and doubts. She raises two key issues: the silence of God and the suffering of the innocent. She depicts a world where pain and evil reign, and God seems hidden. Ultimately, she contemplates suicide as a solution to her troubles.
- Love: Unrequited love causing pain, lost love, infidelity, and neglect.
- Shadows: The presence of deceased individuals with whom Rosalía communicates easily when alone.
Rosalía de Castro’s Poetic Metrics
Her verses often employ popular forms: songs, seguidillas, and romances with 8, 7, 6, or 5 syllables. She also incorporates elements of cultured tradition, such as quatrains. Furthermore, she uses pentameter, octaves, and dodecasyllabic verses. Her verses are not always harmonious or conventionally pleasant. She created unique line combinations, perhaps unprecedented.
Rosalía de Castro’s Literary Style
Cantares Gallegos: The language reflects the impoverished state of Galician, which had long been neglected. It is a dialect with lexical variations and Castilianisms. She employs repetition, choruses, anaphora, parallelism, chiasmus, antithesis, enumerations, and comparisons.
Follas Novas and En las orillas del Sar: Rosalía abandons the popular tone for a more serious one. She uses repetition, contrast, adjectives, comparisons, and metaphors, often incorporating symbolism.
Reception and Legacy of Rosalía de Castro
Cantares Gallegos was embraced by the Galician people, who felt represented, and also in Catalonia, but less so in Castile. Some poems were even translated into Catalan. Follas Novas and En las orillas del Sar are Rosalía’s personal accounts, revealing her inner world and a desolate, hopeless worldview. While Follas Novas championed the people’s cause, its reception was complex, as it was not written by the people themselves. Through the praise of many poets, her work gained prestige, establishing her as one of the great figures of modern poetry.