The poets Manuel del PALACIO (1832-1895) and Federico BALART (1831-1905), though quite unlike in genius, won the esteem of their contemporaries. Palacio wrote excellent sonnets and epigrams. In his Leyendas y poemas he proved his mastery of Spanish diction; he had, moreover, the saving grace of humor which was so noticeably lacking in Zorrilla's legends. The poet and literary critic, Balart, achieved fame with his Dolores, in which he mourns with sincere grief the death of his beloved wife. Mention should also be made of the following poets who deserve recognition in this brief review of the history of Spanish lyric poetry: Vicente Wenceslao QUEROL (1836-1889), a Valencian, whose El eclipse, Cartas á María, and La fiesta de Venus, evince a remarkable technical skill and an unusual correctness of diction; Teodoro LLORENTE (cf. p. 279); José GALIANO ALCALÁ whose verses have delicate feeling and lively imagination; Emilio FERRARI (b. 1853), the author of Abelardo é Hipatia and Aspiración; the pessimistic poets, Joaquín María de BARTRINA (1850-1880) and Gabino TEJADO; Salvador RUEDA (b. 1857), author of El bloque, En tropel and Cantos de la vendimia; and the poet and dramatist, Eduardo MARQUINA.
After the death of Campoamor in the first year of the twentieth century, the title of doyen of Spanish letters fell by universal acclaim to Gaspar NÚÑEZ DE ARCE (1834-1903). Núñez de Arce was a lyric poet, a dramatist and a writer of polemics, but first of all a man of action. With him the solution of political and sociological problems was all-important, and his literary writings were mostly the expression of his sociological and political views. Núñez de Arce is best known for his Gritos del combate (1875), in which he sings of liberty but opposes anarchy with energy and courage. As a satirist he attacks the excesses of radicalism as well as the vices and foibles common to mankind.[5] As a poet he is neither original nor imaginative, and often his ideas are unduly limited; but he writes with a manly vigor that is rare amongst Spanish lyric poets, most of whom have given first place to the splendors of rhetoric.
Footnote 5:[ (return) ] Speaking of Núñez de Arce's satire, Juan Valera says humorously, in Florilegio de poesías castellanas del siglo XIX, Madrid, 1902, Vol. I, p. 247: «Está el poeta tan enojado contra la sociedad, contra nuestra descarriada civilización y contra los crímenes y maldades de ahora, y nos pinta tan perverso, tan vicioso y tan infeliz al hombre de nuestros días, atormentado por dudas, remordimientos, codicias y otras viles pasiones, que, á mi ver, lejos de avergonzarse este hombre de descender del mono, debiera ser el mono quien se avergonzara de haberse humanado.»
Most writers on the history of European literatures have called attention to the fact that at the beginning of the nineteenth century there was a great outpouring of lyricism, which infused itself into prose as well as verse. When this movement had exhausted itself there came by inevitable reaction a period of materialism, when realism succeeded romanticism and prose fiction largely replaced verse. And now sociological and pseudo-scientific writings threaten the very existence of idealistic literature. And yet through it all there has been no dearth of poets. Browning in England and Campoamor in Spain, like many before them, have given metrical form to the expression of their philosophical views. And other poets, who had an intuitive aversion to science, have taken refuge in pure idealism and have created worlds after their own liking. To-day prose is recognized as the best medium for the promulgation of scientific or political teachings, and those who are by nature poets are turning to art for art's sake. Poetry is less didactic than formerly, and it is none the less beautiful and inspiring.
The [Notes] to this volume contain historical sketches of the literatures of Argentina [(p. 279)], Colombia [(p. 285)], Cuba [(p. 291)], Ecuador and Peru [(p. 296)], Mexico [(p. 307)], and Venezuela [(p. 315)]. It is to be regretted that lack of space has excluded an account of the literatures of other Spanish-American countries, and especially of Chile and Uruguay.
III
SPANISH VERSIFICATION
Spanish versification is subject to the following general laws:
(1) There must be a harmonious flow of syllables, in which harsh combinations of sounds are avoided. This usually requires that stressed syllables be separated by one or more unstressed syllables.[6]