Chapter 20
After Olmedo, the commanding figure among the classical poets of Peru is Felipe Pardo y Aliaga (1806-1868). Pardo was educated in Spain, where he studied with Alberto Lista. From his teacher he acquired a fondness page 304 for classical studies and a conservatism in letters that he retained throughout his life. In his later years he was induced to adopt some of the metrical forms invented or revived by the romanticists, but in spirit he remained a conservative and a classicist. He had a keen sense of wit and a lively imagination which made even his political satires interesting reading. Besides his _Poesías y escritos en prosa_ (Paris, 1869), Pardo left a number of comedies portraying local types and scenes which are clever attempts at imitation of Spanish drama. As with all the earlier poets of Spanish America, literature was only a side-play to Pardo, although it probably took his time and attention even more than the law, which was his profession. A younger brother, José (1820-1873), wrote a few short poems, but his verses are relatively limited and amateurish. Manuel Ascensión Segura (1805-1871) wrote clever farces filled with descriptions of local customs, somewhat after the type of the modern _género chico_ (_Artículos, poesías y comedias_, Lima, 1866).
The romantic movement came directly from Spain to Peru and obtained a foothold only well on toward the close of the first half of the century. The leader of the Bohemian romanticists of Lima was a Spaniard from Santander, Fernando Velarde. Around him clustered a group of young men who imitated Espronceda and Zorrilla and Velarde with great enthusiasm. For an account of the "Bohemians" of the fourth and fifth decades in Lima [Numa Pompilio Llona (b. 1832), Nicolás Corpancho (1830-1863), Luis Benjamín Cisneros (b. 1837), Carlos Augusto Salaverry (1830-1891), Manuel Ascensión Segura (b. 1805), Clemente Althaus (1835-1881), Adolfo García (1830-1883), Constantino Carrasco (1841-1877) and others, see the introduction to the _Poesías_ (Lima, 1887) of Ricardo Palma (1833-___: till 1912 director of the national library of Peru).]
Not often could the romanticists of America go back to page 305 indigenous legend for inspiration as their Spanish cousins so often did; but this Constantino Carrasco undertook to do in his translation of the famous Quichua drama, _Ollanta_. It was long claimed, and many still believe, that this is an ancient indigenous play; but to-day the more thoughtful critics are inclined to consider it an imitation of the Spanish classical drama, perhaps written in the Quichua language by some Spanish priest (Valdés?). The 8-syllable lines, the rime-scheme and the spirit of the play all suggest Spanish influence. In parenthesis it should be added that Quichua verse is still cultivated artificially in Peru and Ecuador.
The two men of that generation who have most distinguished themselves are Pedro Paz-Soldán y Unanue, "Juan de Arona" (1839-1894), a poet of satire and humor; and Ricardo Palma (1833-___) a leading scholar and literary critic, best known for his prose _Tradiciones peruanas_ (Lima, 1875 and 1899).
The strongest representative of the present-day "_modernistas_" in Peru is José Santos Chocano (1867-___), a disciple of Darío. Chocano writes with much grandiloquence. His many sonnets are mostly prosaic, but some are finished and musical (cf. _La magnolia_). He is more Christian (cf. _Evangeleida_) than most of his contemporaries, and he sings of the _conquistadores_ with true admiration [cf. _En la aldea_, Lima, 1895; _Iras santas_, Lima, 1895; _Alma América_ (_Prólogo_ de Miguel de Unamuno), Madrid, 1906; _La selva virgen_, Paris, 1901; _Fiat lux_, Paris, 1908].
A younger man is Edilberto Zegarra Ballón of Arequipa (1880-___), author of _Vibraciones, Poemas, el al._ His verse is simpler and less rugged than that of the more virile Chocano.
References: Men. Pel., _Ant. Poetas Hisp.-Amer._, III, p. cxlix f.; Blanco García, III, 362 f.; _Diccionario histórico y biográfico del Perú, formado y redactado por Manuel de Mendíburu_, 9 vols., Lima, 1874-80; _Colección de documentos literarios del Perú_, 11 vols., Manuel de Odriozola, Lima, 1863-74; page 306 _América poética_, Juan María Gutiérrez, Valparaíso, 1846; _Parnaso peruano_, J.D. Cortés, Paris, 1875; _La Bohemia limeña de 1848 á 1860, Prólogo de Poesías de Ricardo Palma_, Lima, 1887; _Lira americana,_ Ricardo Palma, Paris, 1865.
=193.=--Olmedo: see preceding note.
8. =Á=, _with_.
=194.=--15-17. The following is a translation of a note to these lines which is given in _Poesías de Olmedo_, Garnier Hermanos, Paris, 1896: "Physicists have attempted to explain the equilibrium that is maintained by the earth in spite of the difference of mass in its two hemispheres" (northern and southern). "May not the enormous weight of the Andes be one of the data with which this curious problem of physical geography can be solved?"
=195.=--4. The religion of the ancient Peruvians, before they were converted to Christianity by the Spaniards, was based on the worship of the sun. The chief temple of the sun was at Cuzco.
25. Bolivar was a native of Caracas, Venezuela; but, when this poem was written, Colombia comprised most of the present States of Venezuela, Colombia, Panama and Ecuador. Moreover, Colombia is probably used somewhat figuratively by the poet to designate the "land of Columbus."
26. The Peruvians and the Colombians were allies. It is an interesting fact that in the war for independence waged by the Spanish Americans against Spain, the leaders of the Americans were nearly all of Spanish descent, while the majority of the rank and file of the American soldiery was Indian. To this day, a majority of the population of Spanish America, excepting only Chile, Argentina and the West Indian Islands, is indigenous, and their poets still sing of "indigenous America," but they sing in the Spanish tongue! See p. 211, l. 7. page 307 =196.=--21. See note to p. 162, l. 8. The Peruvian flag has an image of the _sun_ in its center.
23. It is reported that the first onslaught of the Spanish-American cavalry failed, partly by reason of their impetuousness, and that they would probably have been defeated if Bolivar had not rallied them and led them on to victory.
=198.=--10. The battle of Junin began at about five o'clock in the afternoon, and it is said that only night saved the Spaniards from complete destruction.
11. =El dios oía=: destiny did not permit the god to stay his course for an hour, but the god left behind him his circlet of diamonds (the stars).
=199.=--=Mexico.= The Virreinato de Nueva España was a favored colony, where Spanish culture took deepest root. It had the first institution of learning in America (opened in 1553 by decree of Charles I) and the first printing-press (1540?). Some 116 books were printed in Mexico City during the sixteenth century, most of which were catechisms or grammars and dictionaries in the native languages. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries several Spanish poets, mostly Sevillans, went to Mexico. Among these were Diego Mexía (went to Mexico in 1596); Gutierre de Cetina, Juan de la Cueva, and Mateo Alemán (published _Ortografía castellana_ in Mexico in 1609). _Certámenes poéticos_ ("poetic contests") were held in Mexico, as in other Spanish colonies, from time to time. The first of importance occurred in Mexico City in 1583, to which seven bishops lent the dignity of their presence and in which three hundred poets (?) competed. After the discovery and conquest of the Philippines, great opulence came to Mexico on account of its being on a direct route of Pacific trade between Europe and Asia, and Mexico became an emporium of Asiatic goods (note introduction of Mexican dollar into China).
The first native poet deserving of the name was Francisco page 308 de Terrazas (cf. Cervantes, _Canto de Calíope_, 1584), who left in manuscript sonnets and other lyrics and an unfinished epic poem, _Nuevo mundo y conquista_. It is interesting that in the works of Terrazas and other native poets of the sixteenth century the Spaniards are called "_soberbios_," "_malos_," etc. Antonio Saavedra Guzmán was the first in Mexico to write in verse a chronicle of the conquest (_El peregrino indiano_, Madrid, 1599). _Coloquios espirituales_ (published posthumously in 1610), _autos_ of the "morality" type, with much local color and partly in dialect, were written by Fernán González Eslava, whom Pimentel considers the best sacred dramatic poet of Mexico. Sacred dramatic representations had been given in Spanish and in the indigenous languages almost from the time of the conquest. According to Beristain, at least two plays of Lope were done into Nahuatl by Bartolomé de Alba, of native descent, and performed, _viz._: _El animal profeta y dichoso parricida_ and _La madre de la Mejor_.
The first poet whose verses are genuinely American, exotic and rich in color like the land in which written (a rare quality in the Spanish poetry of the period), was Bernardo de Balbuena (1568-1627: born in Spain; educated in Mexico). Balbuena had a strong descriptive faculty, but his work lacked restraint (cf. _Grandeza mexicana_, Mex., 1604; Madrid, 1821, 1829 and 1837; N.Y., 1828; Mex., 1860). The great dramatist, Juan Ruiz de Alarcón (1581?-1639), was born and educated in Mexico; but as he wrote in Spain, and his dramas are Spanish in feeling, he is best treated as a Spanish poet.
Next only to Avellaneda the most distinguished Spanish-American poetess is the Mexican nun, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651-1695), whose worldly name was Juana Inés de Asbaje y Ramírez de Cantillana. Sor Juana had intellectual curiosity in an unusual degree and early began the study of Latin and other languages. When still a young girl she became a maid-in-waiting in the viceroy's palace, where her beauty and wit attracted much page 309 attention; but she soon renounced the worldly life of the court and joined a religious order. In the convent of San Jerónimo she turned for solace to books, and in time she accumulated a library of four thousand volumes. Upon being reproved by a zealous bishop for reading worldly books, she sold her entire library and gave the proceeds to the poor. Sor Juana's better verses are of two kinds: those that give evidence of great cleverness and mental acuteness, and those that have the ring of spontaneity and sincerity. As an exponent of erotic mysticism, she is most interesting. In the most passionate of her erotic verses there is an apparent sincerity which makes it difficult for the lay reader to believe that she had not been profoundly influenced by human love,--as when she gives expression to the feelings of a loving wife for a dead husband, or laments the absence of a lover or tells of a great jealousy. In addition to her lyrics Sor Juana wrote several _autos_ and dramas. Her poems were first published under the bombastic title of _Inundación castálida de la única poetisa, Musa décima, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz_, Madrid, 1689 (vol. II, Seville, 1691; vol. III, Madrid, 1700).
During the first half of the eighteenth century the traditions of the preceding century persisted; but in the second half there came the neo-classic reaction. Among the best of the prosaic poets of the century are: Miguel de Reyna Zeballos (_La elocuencia del silencio_, Madrid, 1738); Francisco Ruiz de León (_Hernandía_, 1755, based on the _Conquista de México_ by Solís); and the priest Jorge José Sartorio (1746-1828: _Poesías sagradas y profanas_, 7 vols., Puebla, 1832). The Franciscan Manuel de Navarrete (1768-1809) is considered by Pimentel superior to Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz as a philosophic poet (the writer of this article does not so consider him) and is called the "restorer of lyric and objective poetry in Mexico" (cf. Pim., _Hist. Poesía Mex._, p. 442). Navarrete wrote in a variety of styles. His verses are harmonious, but _altisonante_ and often incorrect. His best page 310 lyrics, like those of Cienfuegos, have the personal note of the romanticists to follow (_Entretenimientos poéticos_, Mex., 1823, Paris, 1835; _Poesías_, Mex., 1905).
There were no eminent Mexican poets during the revolutionary period. Andrés Quintana Roo (1787-1851) was a lawyer and journalist and president of the congress which made the first declaration of independence. Pimentel (p. 309) calls him an eminent poet and one of the best of the period. Two of the most important in the period are: Manuel Sánchez de Tagle (1782-1847), a statesman given to philosophic meditation, but a poor versifier (_Poesías_, 1852); and Francisco Ortega (1793-1849), an ardent republican, who opposed Iturbide when the latter had himself proclaimed emperor of Mexico in 1821 (_Poesías líricas_, 1839; cf. _Á Iturbide en su coronación_). To these should be added Joaquín María del Castillo y Lanzas (1781-1878), one-time minister to the United States (_Ocios juveniles_, Philadelphia, 1835); and the priest Anastasio María Ochoa (1783-1833), who translated French, Italian, and Latin (Ovid's _Heroides_) works, and wrote some humorous verses (_Poesías_, N.Y., 1828: contains two dramas).
Next to Alarcón, the greatest dramatist that Mexico has produced is Manuel Eduardo de Gorostiza (1789-1851), who wrote few lyric verses, but many dramas in verse and prose. His plays, which are full of humorous contrasts, were written during his residence in Spain and are, for the most part, typically Spanish in all respects. Gorostiza, in manner and style, is considered a bridge between Moratín and Bretón. His best comedy is _La indulgencia para todos_ (cf. _Teatro original_, Paris, 1822; _Teatro escogido_, Bruxelles, 1825; _Obras dramáticas_, _Bibl. Aut. Mex._, vols. 22, 24, 26, 45, Mex.,-1899).
Romanticism came into Mexico through Spain. It was probably introduced by Ignacio Rodríguez Galván (1816-1842), a translator, lyric poet, and page 311 dramatist. His lyrics have the merit of sincerity; pessimism is the prevailing tone and there is much invective. His _Profecías de Guatimoc_ is considered the masterpiece of Mexican romanticism (_Obras_, 2 vols., Mex., 1851; Paris, 1883). Another well-known romantic lyricist and dramatist is Fernando Calderón (1809-1845), who was more correct in form than Rodríguez Galvan (_Poesías_, Mex., 1844 and 1849; Paris, 1883; Mex., 1902).
The revival of letters in Mexico is generally attributed to the conservative poets Pesado and Carpio, both of whom sought to be classic, although they were not altogether so in practise. Probably the best known Mexican poet, though certainly not the most inspired, is José Joaquín Pesado (1801-1861). He translated much from Latin, French and Italian, and in some cases failed to acknowledge his indebtedness (cf. Pimentel, p. 694). His best translations are of the Psalms. The _Aztecas_, which were published as a translation of, or an adaptation from, indigenous legends, are mostly original with Pesado in all probability. He is an unusually even writer, and some of his verses are good (cf. certain sonnets: _Mi amada en la misa del alba_, which reminds one of Meléndez Valdés in _Rosana en los fuegos_; _Elegía al ángel de la guardia de Elisa_; and parts of _La revelación_ in _octavas reales_). Montes de Oca and Menéndez y Pelayo consider Pesado the greatest of Mexican poets; but Pimentel does not (p. 694). Cf. _Poesías originales y traducciones_, Mex., 1839-40 (most complete), 1886 (introduction of Montes de Oca); _Biografía de Pesado_, by José María Roa Bárcena, Mex., 1878. Manuel Carpio (1791-1860) began to write verses after he had reached the age of forty years, and there is, consequently, a certain ripeness of thought and also a lack of feeling in his poetry. His verses are chiefly narrative or descriptive and generally treat of biblical subjects. His language is usually correct, but often prosaic (_Poesías_, Mex., 1849). page 312 Minor poets of this period are: Alejandro Arango (1821-1883), an imitator of León (_Versos_, 1879; _Ensayo histórico sobre Fr. Luis de León_, Mex., 1866); Ignacio Ramírez (1818-1879), of Indian race, who was a free lance in religion and politics, and largely responsible for the separation of Church and State in Mexico (_Poesías_, Mex., 1889, and _Lecciones de literatura_, Mex., 1884); and Ignacio M. Altamarino (1834-1893), an erotic and descriptive poet (_Obras_, Mex., 1899).
The most popular Mexican poets during the second half of the nineteenth century have been Acuña, Flores, Peza and Gutiérrez Nájera. A materialistic iconoclast, Manuel Acuña (1849-1873) was uneven and incorrect in language, but capable of deep poetic feeling. In his _Poesías_ (Garnier, Paris, 8th ed.) there are two short poems that may live: _Nocturno_, a passionate expression of disappointment in love; and _Ante un cadáver_, a poem of dogmatic materialism. Acuña committed suicide at the age of twenty-four years. Manuel María Flores (1840-1885), an erotic poet largely influenced by Musset, is very popular in Mexico (_Pasionarias_, Paris, 1911). Probably the most widely read poet of the period is Juan de Dios Peza (1852-1910). His verses are often incorrect and weak, as he improvised much; but they are interesting, as they usually treat of homely topics (_Poesías completas: El arpa del amor_, 1891; _Hogar y patria_, 1891; _Leyendas_, 1898; _Flores del alma; Recuerdos y esperanzas_, 1899, Garnier, Paris). The romantic pessimist, Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera (d. 1888), was tormented throughout life by the vain quest of happiness and the thirst of truth. His verses, which are often elegiac or fantastic, are highly admired by the younger generation of Mexican poets. In a letter to the writer of this article, Blanco-Fombona praises Gutiérrez Nájera above all other Mexican poets (_Poesías_, Paris, 1909, 2 vols.).
References: Menéndez y Pelayo, _Ant. Poetas Hisp.-Amer._, I, p. xiv f.: Blanco García, III, 304 f.; Francisco Pimentel, _Historia crítica de la page 313 poesía en México_, Mex., 1892; _Biblioteca hispano-americana septentrional_, D. José Mariano Beristain de Souza, Mex., 1816-21, 3 vols. (has more than 4000 titles),--reprinted by Fortino Hipólito de Vera, Amecameca, 1883; _Bibliografía mexicana del siglo XVI (catálogo razonado de los libros impresos in México de 1539 á 1600)_; _Biografías de mexicanos distinguidos_, D. Francisco Sosa, Mex., 1884; _Poetas yucatecos y tabasqueños_, D. Manuel Sánchez Mármol y D. Alonso de Regil y Peón, Mérida de Yucatán, 1861; _Poetisas mexicanas_, Bogotá, 1889; _Colección de poesias mexicanas_, Paris, 1836; _El parnaso mexicano_, 36 vols., R.B. Ortega, Mex., 1886; _Biblioteca de autores mexicanos_, some 75 vols. to 1911, Mex.; _Antología de poetas mexicanos_, publ. by Acad. Mex., Mex., 1894; _Poetas mexicanos_, Carlos G. Amézaga, Buenos Aires, 1896; _Los trovadores de México_, Barcelona, 1900.
Pesado: see preceding note.
=La Serenata=: see _Introduction, Versification_, p. lxviii.
=200.=--6-11. These lines of Pesado are similar to those found in the first stanzas of _Su alma_ by Milanés. See Hills' _Bardos cubanos_ (Boston, 1901), p. 69.
Calderón: see note to p. 199.
=202.=--Acuña: see note to p. 199.
=204.=--15. The language is obscure, but the meaning seems to be: _borrarte (á ti que estás) en mis recuerdos_.
19. The forced synalepha of =yo haga= is discordant and incorrect.
=204.=--23 to =205.=--8. That is, when the altar was ready for the marriage ceremony, and the home awaited the bride. The reference, apparently, is to a marriage at an early hour in the morning,--a favored time for marriages in Spanish lands.
=208.=--1. =la alma=, by poetic license, since _el alma_ would make the line too long by one syllable.
=207.=--Peza: see note to p. 199.
=211.=--Darío: with the appearance in 1888 of a small volume of prose and verse entitled _Azul_, by Rubén Darío (1864-) of Nicaragua, there triumphed in Spanish America the "movement of emancipation," the "literary page 314 revolution," which the "decadents" had already initiated in France. As romanticism had been a revolt against the empty formalism of later neo-classicism, so "decadence" was a reaction against the hard, marmoreal forms of the "Parnasse," and in its train there came inevitably a general attack on poetic traditions. This movement was hailed with joy by the young men of Latin America, who are by nature more emotional and who live in a more voluptuous environment than their cousins in Spain; for they had come to chafe at the coldness of contemporary Spanish poetry, at its lack of color and its "petrified metrical forms." With the success of the movement there was for a time a reign of license, when poet vied with poet in defying the time-honored rules, not only of versification, but also of vocabulary and syntax. But as in France, so in Spanish America, "decadence" has had its day, although traces of its passing are everywhere in evidence, and the best that was in it still lingers.
To-day the Spanish-American poets are turning their attention more and more to the study of sociological problems or to the cementing of racial solidarity. These notes ring clear in some recent poems of Darío, and of José S. Chocano of Peru and Rufino Blanco-Fombona of Venezuela. The lines given in the text are an ode which was addressed to Mr. Roosevelt when he was president of the United States from 1901 to 1909. The meter of the poem is mainly the Old Spanish Alexandrine, but with a curious intermingling of lines of nine, ten and eight syllables, and with assonance of the even lines throughout. In all fairness it should be stated here that Señor Darío, in a recent letter to the writer of these _Notes_, said: "I do not think to-day as I did when I wrote those verses" (Darío: _Epístolas y poemas_, 1885; _Abrojos_, 1887; _Azul_, 1888; _Cantos de vida y esperanza_, Madrid, 1905; _El canto errante_, Madrid, 1907). page 315 =212.=--8. Argentina and Chile are the most progressive of the Spanish-American States. The Argentine flag is blue and white, with a _sun_ in the center; the flag of Chile has a white and a red bar, and in one corner a white _star_ on a blue background.
11. This refers, of course, to the colossal bronze Statue of Liberty by the French sculptor, Frédéric Bartholdi, which stands in New York harbor.
14. In a letter to the writer of these _Notes_, Senor Darío explains this passage as follows: "Bacchus, or Dionysius, after the conquest of India (I refer to the semi-historical and not to the mythological Bacchus) is supposed to have gone to other and unknown countries. I imagine that those unknown countries were America. Pan, who accompanied Bacchus on his journey, taught those new men the alphabet. All this is related to the tradition of the arrival of bearded men, strangely dressed, in the American countries.... These traditions exist in the South as well as the North."
16. =Que consultó los astros=: the ancient Peruvians and Mexicans had made considerable progress in the study of astronomy.
=214.=--=Venezuela.= During the colonial period the development of literary culture was slower in the Capitanía de Caracas than in Colombia, Peru and Mexico. The Colegio de Santa Rosa, which was founded at Caracas in 1696, was made a university in 1721. Not till 1806 was the first printing-press set up in the colony.