Western Lyric Poetry - Literature review Example

The Castilian Lyric Lyric poetry is distinguished from all other forms of poetry essentially because it does not attempt to tell or narrate a story like epic or dramatic poetry. Instead, the lyric poet does away with portraying characters or actions and talks to the reader directly, expressing his emotions, state of mind and perceptions. Western lyric poetry owes its origin in the Southern Europe where the Petrarchan influence was closest and most potent, enhanced by the Roman/Italian manners, values and sentiments. One of the most popular and original subjects of this form of poetry is the courtly-love lyric tradition which Capell Lofft described as “all that is most endearing, most interesting, most beautiful, most excellent and sublime, that is the tenderest, purest, most generous feelings of love and friendship.” (Bandiera & Saglia, p. 82) This paper will specifically discuss the Castilian lyric poetry and its features that temper the depiction of the romantic experience by the introduction of references to unromantic subjects such as social class and ethnic background. Background At this point, it is important to underscore that “Castilian” is the precursor of the Spanish language. The language emerged as a result of standardizing influences emanating from the Castilian court and hence, most scholars come to use “Castilian” and “Spanish” in the same context. We will also be using the same parameters in the discussion. Spain is one of the countries with great Romantic heritage. Her history, her people, her culture – all have remarkable elements of sentimentality and romantic nature. This has set the Spanish lyrical prose distinct because the incorporation of poetic rhythms and dictions puts emphasis on sensations and emotions instead of ideas which allowed a colorful pictorial approach and audacious use of figurative language.1 History Many scholars believe that the history of Spanish lyric poetry started with the epic tale of El Cid Campeador by Rodrigo Diaz and that the poetry was brought to Spain by Troubadours from France. 2 The discovery of the jarchas, however, has proven that lyric poetry in Castile existed more than a hundred years before. “Usually anonymous, or written by Arab or Hebrew in primitive Castilian with the inclusion of some Arabic words, these songs were later incorporated into Arab poems. Only recently discovered, the jarchas prove the existence of lyric poetry on the Spanish peninsula about one hundred years before the oldest of the Canciones de gesta (epic poems), the Cantar de Mio Cid (1140 A.D.).” (Florit, p. 2) Castile’s role as a spreading center of popular lyric is underscored by authors like Menendez Pidal after the discovery of the jarchas, the short lyric poem written in very archaic Spanish, in a synagogue in Egypt.3 Courtly Love John II of Castile was a great patron of literature and not a few scholars have cited him as the person who sponsored the rebirth of Castilian lyric poetry. In his reign lyric poetry flourished. “The cancioneros (collections of poem) of this period are filled mainly with love and topical poetry” ( Resnick & Pasmantier, p. xiv) in contrast with the subjects of the previous periods which are mostly centered on subjects such as nature or, morality or war. With this fact in mind, our discussion will revolve around the backdrop of the age of John II and the epoch that its authors were able to form. This period of brilliant improvement in the ancient national poetry of Spain is memorable in two important respects. First, is the political and social landscape which Bouterwek narrated: During the whole period, the Castilian monarchy was convulsed by internal troubles. Even in the last ten years of the fourteenth century, the powerful barons of the kingdom had almost wrested the scepter from the hands of John I and Henry III. Under John II, the celebrated patron of poetry, who reigned from 1407 to 1454, the monarchy was more than once menaced with destruction. (p. 78) This is particularly important in our discussion as the court of John II become a sort of poetical court, with members composing it at once poets, warriors, and statesmen, surrounding a learned sovereign, in spite of his imperfections. The second important element is the monarch, himself. It was explained above that he encouraged poetry and literature and was himself an educated man. Another dimension, however, was the story of his relationship with Alvaro de Luna one of his trusted advisers. There is a debate whether such relationship was homosexual in nature or genuine friendship, but whatever was the cause, it was admired by the court as much as it was despised. Luna was a servant, he was the king’s page since he was a child and his rise to power was appreciated by some quarters while it was deeply resented by the aristocracy.4 The elements of Castilian lyric poetry, hence, are present in the celebrated relationship – an enduring love, issues of social, ethnicity and tragic themes. Of course, what shaped the Castilian lyric poetry most were its poets. The Cancioneros, Macias, the Marquis of Santillana, Juan de Mena, Jorge Manrique and the Cancioneros, among others, showed us romantic experience by the introduction of references to unromantic subjects. Castilian Poets Two of the most notable Castilian lyric poets were the Marquis of Santillana and Juan de Mena. They were deeply committed to poetry and literature and were renowned among their contemporaries. Juan de Mena In addition to his moral-political works, Mena also produced more traditional courtly poetry. There are fifty or so surviving examples of Mena’s lyric poetry, including love lyrics, occasional verses, satirical pieces, and exchanges with other poets. The minor lyrics are far less complex than his major works in both style and content. His love poetry was well-respected for its originality and treatment of the nature of love’s passion as an abstract, intellectual experience.5 The Marquis of Santillana Although not the best writer of his time, the Marquis of Santillana distinguished himself with a number of notable lyric poetry. Among these is the lyric poem on the death of Villena, “in which the poet loses himself in a desert, and is surrounded by wild animals; as he advances, he hears tones of lamentation, and presently discovers several nymphs in mourning, who are bewailing the loss and chanting the merits of Villena.” (Foster, p. 119) Another piece is called the Seranilla, which Santillana composed on a little girl whom he found tending her father’s herds on the hills where he was on military duty.6 It is considered as one of the most graceful poems in the Spanish language. Ethnic Dimension In the fifteenth century, the correspondence between the Castilian and the Portuguese poetry was at that time particularly promoted by the Galician poets, who though faithful subjects of the Castilian monarchy, still remained true to their mother tongue.7 It was Bouterwek who elaborated on this ethnic dimension in the Castilian lyric poetry: Galicia seems to have been the land of romantic sentiment whence the poetry of love exhibited in the lyric compositions of Spain and Portugal was transplanted… The Spanish amatory poets, however extravagant might be their extacies in verse, confined themselves, in real life, within certain boundaries, which were consistent with the habits of society. The Portuguese, on the contrary, and as it would appear, the Galicians likewise, when they indulges in the poetic expression of violent and enthusiastic feelings of love, conceived that it was still necessary they should seek to impress the stamp of perfection on their songs, by exhibiting all kinds of sentimental excesses in their own personal conduct. The Cancioneros The Cancioneros is considered a poetic culture of the period. This is a collection of lyric poetry by various poets and published through printing press. The themes in the compilation range from works of devotion (religious) to amatory poems. But the widely received and most popular were those lyrics about love. “The earliest cancionero printed was at Saragossa, in 1492. It comprehended the works of Mena, Manrique, and six or seven other bards of less note.” (Prescott and Hickling p. 131) In the words of Garcilaso de la Vega and Jeremiah Holmes Wiffen (1823) we are given an idea: The writers of this period sweetened down a little the austere aspect which the art hitherto presented, and abandoning the lengthy poems, devotional legends, and wearisome series of dry precepts and bald sentences, devoted themselves to subjects more proportioned to their powers, and the murmurs of the love-song and tone of the elegy were now most commonly felt upon their lips.” (p. 18) Here, we found that unlike the Italian prose, which describes lofty dithyrambic eloquence, adorned with all the brilliant coloring of a stimulated fancy and a highly finished language, the Castilian lyrics do away with splendid personification, deepen verse into a moral tone, and dwell on the vicissitudes and vanities of human life, points reflections with some caustic warning, convey with enchanting simplicity, but without the least approach to lyric exaltation or affectation of it.8 In the Castilian lyrics, country girls became the lovely maidens in the poetry, their fields and hometowns – the setting and the subjects. The period in literature is no longer characterized by gods and heroes of gargantuan proportions. The marches on the battlefield and towering cities were no longer in vogue. To cite a specific example: The Villancicos in the Cancioneros are lyrics about antiquated chivalry very affectedly blended with genuine effusions of the heart. This according to Bouterwek, are enlivened by a glimmer of poetic truth; and even old fashioned conceits which successfully contributes to express the intensity of emotion. 9 Prescott and Hickling continued with the observation on one artifact called Cancioner General. They commented on anagrams of the Virgin, glosses on the creed, canciones on original sin and other unpromising topics are discussed. While these parts were criticized to have lacked some true poetic spark, the other parts were hailed: Diego de San Pedro’s Desprecio de la Fortuna may be distinguished, not so much for any poetic talent which it exhibits, as for its mercurial and somewhat sarcastic tone of sentiment. (Prescott & Hickling p. 132) A large number of contributors in the cancioneros are courtiers, but there are also a few women writers who have distinguished themselves although most remained anonymous and would sign merely as a “a lady” or “a female dwarf”. 10 Kaminsky (1996) elaborates: The women poets of the songbooks did not set themselves apart, creating a separate women’s poetry. The poetry of the cancioneros is continuously intertextual, with an abundance of poetic conversations and glosses; and the women poets participated fully in this social poetic world. Vayona, for example, responds to the lines of a nobleman with a poem that defends the lady that she serves. (p. 34) The women’s poetries were also generally about their experience in love which are then associated with subjects such religious rites, ordinary events, or even the work of planting and harvest. One of the most popular women Castilian lyricists was Florencia Pinar. The following is an example of her piece: These birds are wont To sing with joy, And to see them caged I feel a deep compassion That no one feels for me. They weep to think They did not fear their captor, And those they most disdained Were the first to seize them; Their names bespeak of life, Whose happiness is waning, And to see them caged, I feel a deep compassion, That no one feels for me. (Kaminsky, p. 35) The Castilian literature is far broader, far deeper, and, above all, much more complicated and more interesting than a history which focuses on the literature in a single Peninsular language can hope to portray, even if that language goes on to become one of the most important languages in the world. It has been said that the Castilian lyric poetry marked the Spanish literature’s transition from the Medieval to the Renaissance. The significance of this was translated by John Armstrong Crow (1985) in these words: The age of irons had passed, the age of gold had not yet arrived, and John II was attempting to transform iron into gold, that is, turn the Middle Ages into the Renaissance via the process of refined letters. The wars against the Moors had ceased, the epic tensions of another day had temporarily disappeared. Hence was born the cavalier-poet, the writer who could dedicate his pen and life to courtly things and to love… Now that that Gallego-Portuguese school of lyric poetry is dead, Castilian had become the language of literature, and the Castilian lyric must have its day in court. (p. 133) Works Cited Bandiera, Laura and Saglia, Diego. British Romanticism and Italian Literature: Translating, Reviewing, Rewriting. Rodopi, 2005 Crow, John A. Spain: The Root and the Flower. University of California Press, 1985 de la Vega, Garcilaso and Wiffen, Jeremiah. The Works of Garcilasso de la Vega, Surnamed the Prince of Castilian Poets. Hurst, Robinson, 1823 Chandler, R.E. and Schwartz, K. A New History of Spanish Literature. LSU Press, 1991 Florit, Eugenio. Introduction to Spanish Poetry: A Dual Language Book. Courier Dover Publications, 1991 Fodor, Eugene. Spain and Portugal. D. McKay, 1956 Foster, Alexander. Spanish Literature. W. and R. Chambers, 1851 "Juan de Mena". Wikipedia. 2007 Retrieved 26 Feb. 2007 Kaminsky, Amy. Water Lilies: An Anthology of Spanish Women Writers from the Fifteenth Through the Nineteenth Century. University of Minnesota, 1996 Prescott and Hickling, William. History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella (Vol. II) (1841). Digital Antiquaria, 2004 Resnick, Seymour and Pasmantier, Jeanne. Nine Centuries of Spanish Literature. Courier Dover Publications, 1994 Wintle, Justin. Makers of Nineteenth Century Culture. 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