The Cuban poet Don José María Heredia (1803-1839) is better known in Europe and in the United States than Bello and Olmedo, since his poems are universal in their appeal. He is especially well known in the United States, where he lived in exile for over two years (1823-1825), at first in Boston and later in New York, and wrote his famous ode to Niagara. Born in Cuba, he studied in Santo Domingo and in Caracas (1812-1817), as well as in his native island. Accused of conspiracy against the Spanish government, he fled to the United States in 1823, and there eked out a precarious existence by giving private lessons. In 1825 he went to Mexico, where he was well received and where he held several important posts, including those of member of Congress and judge of the superior court. In Heredia's biography two facts should be stressed: that he studied for five years in Caracas, the city that produced Bolivar and Bello, respectively the greatest general and the greatest scholar of Spanish America; and that he spent only twelve years, all told, in Cuba. As he lived for fourteen years in Mexico, that country also claims him as her own, while Caracas points to him with pride as another child of her older educational system.
Heredia was most unhappy in the United States. He admired the political institutions of this country; but he disliked the climate of New York, and he despaired of learning English. Unlike Bello and Olmedo he was not a classical scholar. His acquaintance with the Latin poets was limited, and seldom does a Virgilian or Horatian expression occur in his verses. Rather did he stand for the manner of Chateaubriand in France and Cienfuegos in Spain. Though strictly speaking not a romantic poet, he was a close precursor of that movement. His language is not seldom incorrect or lacking in sobriety and restraint; but his numbers are musical and his thought springs directly from imaginative exaltation.
Heredia's poorest verses are doubtless his early love-songs: his best are those in which the contemplation of nature leads the poet to meditation on human existence, as in Niágara, El Teocalli de Cholula, En una tempestad and Al sol. In these poems the predominant note is that of gentle melancholy. In Cuba his best known verses are the two patriotic hymns: Á Emilia and El himno del desterrado. These were written before the poet was disillusioned by his later experiences in the turbulent Mexico of the second and third decades of the nineteenth century, and they are so virulent in their expression of hatred of Spain that Menéndez y Pelayo refused to include them in his Anthology. Heredia undertook to write several plays, but without success. Some translations of dramatic works, however, were well received, and especially those of Ducis' Abufar, Chénier's Tibère, Jouy's Sila, Voltaire's Mahomet and Alfieri's Saul. The Garnier edition (Paris, 1893) of Heredia's Poesías contains an interesting introduction by the critic Elías Zerolo (Poesías, N.Y., 1825; Toluca, 1832; N.Y., 1875; Paris, 1893).
The mulatto poet Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés, better known by his pen-name "Plácido" (1809-1844), an uncultivated comb-maker, wrote verses which were mostly commonplace and often incorrect; but some evince remarkable sublimity and dignity (cf. Plegaria á Dios). Cf. Poesías, Matanzas, 1838; Matanzas, 1842; Veracruz, 1845; Paris, 1857; Havana, 1886. The greatest Cuban poetess, and perhaps the most eminent poetess who has written in the Castilian language, is Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda y Arteaga (1814-1873). Since Avellaneda spent most of her life in Spain, an account of her life and work is given in the Introduction to this volume, p. xxxviii. Next only to Heredia, the most popular Cuban poet is José Jacinto Milanés y Fuentes (1814-1863), who gave in simple verse vivid descriptions of local landscapes and customs. A resigned and touching sadness characterizes his best verse (Obras, 4 vols., Havana, 1846; N.Y., 1865).
A lawyer, educator and patriot, Rafael María Mendive y Daumy (1821-1886) wrote musical verse in which there is spontaneity and true poetic feeling (Pasionarias, Havana, 1847; Poesías, Madrid, 1860; Havana, 1883). Joaquín Lorenzo Luaces (1826-1867) was more learned than most Cuban poets and fond of philosophizing. Some of his verse has force and gives evidence of careful study; but much is too pedantic to be popular (Poesías, Havana, 1857). A poet of sorrow, Juan Clemente Zenea,—"Adolfo de la Azucena" (1832-1871),—wrote verses that are marked by tender melancholy (Poesías, Havana, 1855; N.Y., 1872, 1874).
Heredia was not the only Cuban poet to suffer persecution. Of the seven leading Cuban poets, often spoken of as "the Cuban Pleiad," Avellaneda removed to Spain, where she married and spent her life in tranquillity; and Joaquín Luaces avoided trouble by living in retirement and veiling his patriotic songs with mythological names. On the other hand José Jacinto Milanés lost his reason at the early age of thirty years, José María Heredia and Rafael Mendive fled the country and lived in exile; while Gabriel Valdés and Juan Clemente Zenea were shot by order of the governor-general.
Since the disappearance of the "Pleiad," the most popular Cuban poets have been Julián del Casal, a skeptic and a Parnassian poet who wrote pleasing but empty verses (Hojas al viento, Nieve, Bustos y Rimas); and Francisco Sellén, whose philosophy is to conceal suffering and to put one's hand to the plow again (Libro íntimo, Havana, 1865; Poesías, N.Y., 1890). José Martí (1853-1895) spent most of his life in exile; but he returned to Cuba and died in battle against the Spanish forces. He wrote excellent prose, but few verses (Flor y lava, Paris, 1910(?)).
References: Menéndez y Pelayo, Ant. Poetas Hisp.-Am., II, p. 1 f.; Blanco García, III, p. 290 f.; E.C. Hills, Bardos cubanos (contains a bibliography), Boston, 1901; Aurelio Mitjans, Estudio sobre el movimiento científico y literario en Cuba, Havana, 1890; Bachiller y Morales, Apuntes para la historia de las letras y de la instrucción pública de la Isla de Cuba, Havana, 1859; La poesía lírica en Cuba, M. González del Valle, Barcelona, 1900; Cuba poética, Havana, 1858; Parnaso cubano, Havana, 1881.
Heredia: see preceding note.
[5.] This is quite true. On the coast of central and southern Mexico the climate is tropical; on the central plateau it is temperate; and on the mountain slopes, as at the foot of Popocatepetl, it is frigid.