[JOSÉ MARÍA HEREDIA]. The Cuban patriot and poet. Exiled from his beloved island, he spent several years in the United States and then went to Mexico, where he occupied several important judicial offices. His masterpiece is the beautiful ode on Niagara, visited by the poet during his residence in the United States. Cf. the edition of his Obras, New York, 1875: and see Menéndez y Pelayo, Antología de poetas hispano-americanos, vol. II, pp. 15 ff. (poems), pp. xiv ff. (an excellent essay on Heredia), and a biography by A. Bello, London, 1857.
[PLÁCIDO (GABRIEL DE LA CONCEPCIÓN VALDÉS)]. Valdés, best known by his pseudonym of Plácido, was a Cuban mulatto of little training, but of true poetic instinct. He was tried and executed on a charge of conspiracy against the Spanish government of which he was entirely innocent. He is said to have composed in prison and recited on the way to his execution the mournful, resigned Prayer here published. Cf. the edition of his Poesías, Palma de Mallorca, 1847: and see Menéndez y Pelayo, Poetas hispano-americanos, II, xxxiii ff. and 69 ff.
[Page 294].—l. 15. tu: note the combination of the possessive pronoun, second person singular, with verbs of the second person plural, a not infrequent combination in the spoken Spanish of America.—Heliaca estrella, the heliacal star, which rises and sets with the sun.
[CAROLINA CORONADO]. A poetess, recently residing in Portugal, whose verse revives the mystic strains of Luis de León and St. Theresa. Cf. her Poesías, Madrid, 1843 and 1852; and see Blanco-García, I, 193 ff.; E. Castelar, Étude biographique (French translation), Lisbon, 1887.
[Page 295].—l. 5. Gévora: a river flowing through Portugal and through the province of Badajoz in Spain.
[GERTRUDIS GÓMEZ DE AVELLANEDA]. A Cuban who spent the greater part of her life in Spain in the society of the most eminent writers of the time, Avellaneda was the most distinguished Spanish poetess of the nineteenth century. In her earlier poems she is manifestly under the influence of the French romanticists (Hugo, Lamartine, Chateaubriand); in her later verse she is dominated rather by Quintana. Some of the mystic elevation of the poets of the sixteenth century is seen in her religious lyrics (Á la Cruz, Á la Ascensión, etc.). As a novelist and dramatist, Avellaneda likewise holds a high place in Spanish literature. Cf. her Obras literarias, Madrid, 1869; Menéndez y Pelayo, Poetas hispano-americanos, II, 87 ff., xxxix ff.; Blanco-García, I, 190 ff.
[ADELARDO LÓPEZ DE AYALA]. A writer of the post-Romantic period, most noted for his psychological dramas. Though few in number, his lyrics, particularly his sonnets, are of high poetic worth. The sonnet here printed has been set to music and is sung every year at Madrid during the services in commemoration of the 388 poet’s death. Cf. his Obras completas, Madrid, 1885 (poems in vol. VII); Blanco-García, Historia, II, 175 ff.
[JOSÉ SELGAS Y CARRASCO]. Poet, novelist and journalist, the author of La primavera and El estío, two collections of verse pervaded by a gentle melancholy and innocuous pessimism. Cf. his Poesías, Madrid, 1882-83; Blanco-García, II, cap. II.
[GUSTAVO ADOLFO BÉCQUER]. Imbued with the spirit of Hoffmann in his prose legends and with that of Heine in his Rimas, but withal highly original, Bécquer is one of the most attractive figures in modern Spanish literature. To avoid bombast and verbosity, he discarded consonantal rhyme entirely, and made use of the simplest imagery possible. His strains have the mournful sentiment of the North and are more concerned with the inner workings of the poet’s own spirit than with concrete objects of the outer world. His tone is seldom gay or lively and never naturally so; in general the note of sadness sounds through the Rimas. Cf. his Obras, 5ª ed., Madrid, 1898 (with Prólogo by Correa; Rimas in vol. II); Blanco-García, II, 79 ff., 275 ff.
[ANTONIO DE TRUEBA]. A writer of charming novelettes of manners and a poet of the people, particularly of the people of his own Basque region. Unduly lauded and depreciated, he remains a pleasing poet of minor rank. Cf. his verse in the collections which he entitled Libro de los cantares (Madrid, 1852) and Libro de las montañas; Blanco-García, II, 26 ff.