Hellenistic Poetry: Authors, Themes, and Influences
Hipponax of Ephesus
Hipponax of Ephesus lived most of his life outside his homeland as an exile. In the surviving fragments, he is very critical and mocks everything, including his life as a cynical beggar who knows the depths of the places where he lived.
Elegy
It was originally a song of mourning, perhaps sung at the funeral banquet. This genre was influenced by the epic form and the subject, used for expressing the needs and problems of the polis. The meter is the elegiac couplet.
Several poets wrote
Read MoreCelestina & Garcilaso de la Vega: Spanish Literature
The Celestina: A Controversial Masterpiece
The Celestina sparked controversy upon its release. Fernando de Rojas claimed to have found the first act already written and decided to continue the work, completing it in 15 days during a vacation. The author of the first act remains unknown. We know that Fernando de Rojas was born and died in Toledo and studied law in Salamanca.
The first edition appeared in Burgos in 1499, titled Comedy of Calisto and Melibea. It had 16 acts, each preceded by a summary.
Read MoreOccitan Troubadour Poetry: Courtly Love, Themes, and Evolution
Occitan: A Romance Language
Occitan: A Romance language, also known as langue d’oc, spoken in regions like Provence, Gascony, and Limousin.
Courtly Love in Troubadour Poetry
Courtly Love: This term describes the amorous ideology characteristic of troubadour poetry. The Lord/Lady (often a married woman) is seen as an excellent and beautiful being. The troubadour, in a suppliant attitude, uses poetry to seek favors from the lady.
Stages and Personalities of Courtly Love
- Bashful Lover: The lover is initially
Medieval Spanish Literature: El Cid, Courtly Love, and Lyric Poetry
El Poema de Mio Cid
El Poema de Mio Cid is a masterpiece of epic Castilian literature from the medieval period, comprising 3730 verses. It is incomplete, and Menéndez Pidal defends the idea of double authorship. The poem is structured into three cantos: Cantar del Destierro, Cantar de las Bodas, and Cantar de la Afrenta de Corpes.
Argument
The poem has two basic storylines:
- The first follows the exile of the Cid, which leads to the conquest and recovery of Valencia, and the restoration of his lost
Petrarch’s Influence on Renaissance Poetry and Garcilaso de la Vega
Petrarch and the Renaissance
Petrarch was a fourteenth-century Italian poet who embodied the ideals of humanism. He wrote several works in Latin with humanist inspiration, but his historical importance is due to his compositions in the Romance language. His most famous work is the Songbook. Also in the vernacular are his Triumphs.
Triumphs
An allegorical poem composed in triplets (three-stanza poems, art and more heroic verse, rhyming the first with the third, leaving the second free, i.e., rhyme)
Read MoreSpanish Poetry: Evolution from the 1960s to the Present
Social Poetry of the 1960s
Poetry from the 1960s, known as “social poetry,” reacted against a new group of poets who began publishing in the late 1950s. This movement sought further elaboration of poetic language and a shift from the collective to the personal. Without entirely surrendering the social meaning of poetry, the predominant themes became personal and daily experiences, often with a skeptical and moral tone. These poets defended the idea of the poem as an act of knowledge.
Most representative
Read More