NOTES (continued 2)

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; 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.

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 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 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 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 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).

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 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.

206.—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 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).

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.

Poetry in Venezuela begins with Bello, for the works of his predecessors had little merit. Andrés Bello (1781-1865) was the most consummate master of poetic diction among Spanish-American poets, although he lacked the brilliancy of Olmedo and the spontaneity of Heredia. Born in Caracas and educated in the schools of his native city, Bello was sent to England in the year 1810 to further the cause of the revolution, and he remained in that country till 1829, when he was called to Chile to take service in the Department of Foreign Affairs. His life may, therefore, be divided into three distinct periods. In Caracas he studied chiefly the Latin and Spanish classics and the elements of international law, and he made metrical translations of Virgil and Horace. Upon arriving in England at the age of twenty-nine years, he gave himself with enthusiasm to the study of Greek, Italian and French, as well as to English. Bello joined with the Spanish and Hispano-American scholars in London in the publication of several literary reviews, notably the Censor americano (1820), the Biblioteca americana (1823) and the Repertorio americano (1826-27), and in these he published many of his most important works. Here appeared his studies of Old French and of the Song of My Cid, his excellent translation of fourteen cantos of Boiardo's Orlando innamorato, several important articles on Spanish syntax and prosody, and the best of all his poems, the Silvas americanas.

In 1829, when already forty-eight years of age, Bello removed to Chile, and there entered upon the happiest period of his life. Besides working in a government office, he gave private lessons until in 1831 he was made rector of the College of Santiago. In the year 1843 the University of Chile was established at Santiago and Bello became its first rector. He held this important post till his death twenty-two years later at the ripe age of eighty-four. During this third and last period of his life Bello completed and published his Spanish Grammar and his Principles of International Law, works which, with occasional slight revisions, have been used as standard text-books in Spanish America and to some extent in Spain, to the present day. The Grammar, especially, has been extraordinarily successful, and the edition with notes by José Rufino Cuervo is still the best text-book of Spanish grammar we have. In the Grammar Bello sought to free Castilian from Latin terminology; but he desired, most of all, to correct the abuses so common to writers of the period and to establish linguistic unity in Spanish America.

Bello wrote little original verse during these last years of his life. At one time he became exceedingly fond of Victor Hugo and even tried to imitate him; but his classical training and methodical habits made success impossible. His best poetic work during his residence in Chile, however, are translations of Victor Hugo, and his free metrical rendering of La Prière pour tous (from the Feuilles d'automne), is amongst his finest and most popular verses.

It is interesting that Andrés Bello, the foremost of Spanish-American scholars in linguistics and in international law, should also have been a preëminent poet, and yet all critics, except possibly a few of the present-day "modernistas," place his American Silvas amongst the best poetic compositions of all Spanish America. The Silvas are two in number: the Alocución á la poesía and the Silva á la agricultura de la zona tórrida. The first is fragmentary: apparently the poet despaired of completing it, and he embodied in the second poem an elaboration of those passages of the first work which describe nature in the tropics. The Silvas are in some degree imitations of Virgil's Georgics, and they are the best of Spanish imitations. Menéndez y Pelayo, who is not too fond of American poets, is willing to admit (Ant., II, p. cxlii) that Bello is, "in descriptive and Georgic verse, the most Virgilian of our (Spanish) poets." Caro, in his splendid biography of Bello (in Miguel Antonio Caro's introduction to the Poesías de Andrés Bello, Madrid, 1882) classifies the Silvas as "scientific poetry," which is quite true if this sort of poetry gives an esthetic conception of nature, expressed in beautiful terms and adorned with descriptions of natural objects. It is less true of the Alocución, which is largely historical, in that it introduces and sings the praises of towns and persons that won fame in the revolutionary wars. The Silva á la agricultura, which is both descriptive and moral, may be best described in the words of Caro. It is, says this distinguished critic, "an account of the beauty and wealth of nature in the tropics, and an exhortation to those who live in the equator that, instead of wasting their strength in political and domestic dissensions, they should devote themselves to agricultural pursuits." Bello's interest in nature had doubtless been stimulated by the coming of Humboldt to Caracas in the first decade of the nineteenth century. In his attempt to express his feeling for nature in poetic terms, he probably felt the influence not only of Virgil, but also of Arriaza, and of the several poems descriptive of nature written in Latin by Jesuit priests, such as the once famous Rusticatio Mexicana by Father Landivar of Guatemala. And yet there is very little in the Silvas that is directly imitative. The Silva á la agricultura de la zona tórrida, especially, is an extraordinarily successful attempt to give expression in Virgilian terms to the exotic life of the tropics, and in this it is unique in Spanish literature. The beautiful descriptive passages in this poem, the noble ethical precepts and the severely pure diction combine to make it a classic that will long hold an honored place in Spanish-American letters (Obras completas, Santiago de Chile, 1881-93).

During the revolutionary period the most distinguished poets, after Bello, of that part of the greater Colombia which later formed the separate republic of Venezuela, were Baralt and Ros de Olano. Rafael María Baralt (1810-1860) took part in the revolutionary movement of secession from the first Colombia; but later he removed to Spain and became a Spanish citizen. His verses are usually correct, but lack feeling. He is best known as a historian and maker of dictionaries. Baralt was elected to membership in the Spanish Academy (Poesías, Paris, 1888).

General Antonio Ros de Olano (1802-1887) also removed to Spain and won high rank in the Spanish army. He joined the romantic movement and became a follower of Espronceda. Besides a volume of verses (Poesías, Madrid, 1886), Ros de Olano wrote El doctor Lañuela (1863) and other novels. Both Baralt and Ros de Olano were identified with literary movements in Spain rather than in Venezuela.

José Heriberto García de Quevedo (1819-1871) was a cultivated and ambitious scholar who collaborated with Zorrilla in María, Ira de Dios and Un cuento de amores. Among his better works are the three philosophical poems: Delirium, La segunda vida and El proscrito (Obras poéticas y literarias, Paris, 1863). Among the lesser writers of this period are Antonio Maitín (1804-1874), the best of Venezuelan romanticists (cf. El canto fúnebre, a poem of domestic love); Abigail Lozano (1821-1866), a romanticist and author of musical but empty verses ("versos altisonantes"); José Ramón Yepes (1822-1881), an army officer and the author of legends in verse, besides the inevitable Poesías; Eloy Escobar (1824-1889), an elegiac poet; and Francisco G. Pardo (1829-1872), a mediocre imitator of Zorrilla.

Next to Bello alone, the most distinguished poet of Venezuela is José Pérez Bonalde (1846-1892), who was a good German scholar and left, besides his original verses, excellent translations of German poets. His metrical versions of Heine, especially, exerted considerable influence over the growth of literary feeling in Spanish America (Estrofas, N.Y., 1877; El poema del Niágara, N.Y., 1880). At least two other writers of the second half of the nineteenth century deserve mention: Miguel Sánchez Pesquera and Jacinto Gutiérrez Coll.

Among the present-day writers of Venezuela, Luis López Méndez was one of the first to introduce into Spanish America a knowledge of the philosophy and metrical theories of Paul Verlaine. Manuel Díaz Rodríguez (1868-___) has written little verse; but he is the best known Venezuelan novelist of to-day [Sangre patricia, Camino de perfección (essays), Ídolos rotos, Cuentos, 2 vols., Confidencias de Psiquis, Cuentos de color, Sensaciones de viaje, De mis romerías]. The most influential of the younger writers is Rufino Blanco-Fombona, who was expelled from his native country by the present andino ("mountaineer") government and now lives in exile in Paris. At first a disciple of Musset and then of Heine and Maupassant, he is now an admirer of Darío and a pronounced modernista. His Letras y letrados de Hispano-America is the best recent work of literary criticism by a Spanish-American author. Blanco-Fombona is a singer of youthful ambition, force and robust love. His verses have rich coloring, but are at times erotic or lacking in restraint (prose works: Cuentos de poeta, Maracaibo, 1900; Más allá de los horizontes, Madrid, 1903; Cuentos americanos, Madrid, 1904; El hombre de hierro, Caracas, 1907; Letras y letrados de Hispano-America, Paris, 1908. Verses: Patria, Caracas, 1895; Trovadores y trovas, Caracas, 1899; Pequeña ópera lírica, Madrid, 1904; Cantos de la prisión, Paris, 1911).

References: Menéndez y Pelayo, Ant. Poetas Hisp.-Amer., II, p. cx f.; Blanco García, III, p. 321 f.; Reseña histórica de la literatura venezolana (1888) and Estado actual de la literatura en Venezuela (1892), both by Julio Calcaño, Caracas; La literatura venezolana en el siglo XIX, Gonzalo Picón Febres, Caracas, 1906; Parnaso venezolano, 12 vols., Julio Calcaño, Caracas, 1892; Biblioteca de escritores venezolanos, José María Rojas, Paris, 1875; Parnaso venezolano, Barcelona, 1906.

Bello: see preceding note.

1. The Lion symbolizes Spain, since from the medieval kingdom of Leon modern Spain sprang. The battle of Bailén (see in Vocab.) took place in 1808 when Bello was twenty-seven years of age and still loyal to Spain.

214.—16 to 215.—3. Que... concibes = que circunscribes el vago curso al (= del) sol enamorado, y (tú), acariciada de su luz, concibes cuanto ser (= every being that) se anima en cada vario clima.

18. The use of quien referring to inanimate objects is now archaic.

216.—19 to 217.—3. It is said that the banana gives nourishment to more human beings than does any other plant. The fruit is taken when it is still green, before the starch has turned to sugar, and it is boiled, or baked, or it is ground and made into a coarse bread.

6-8. En que... bondadosa! = en que (la) naturaleza bondadosa quiso hacer reseña de sus favores...

9. The student should compare this and the following lines with Vida retirada by Fray Luis de León, p. 9.

19. The rime requires habita, instead of habitad.

22-23. Y... atada = y la razón va atada al triunfal carro de la moda, universal señora.

219.—10-16. ¿Esperaréis... ata? = ¿esperaréis que (el) himeneo forme más venturosos lazos do el interés, tirano del deseo, barata ajena mano y fe por nombre ó plata, que do conforme gusto, conforme edad, y (= both) elección libre y (= and) mutuo ardor ata los lazos? Note that, by poetic license, ata agrees in number with the nearest subject, although it has two.

220.—8-11. As this poem was written after the Spanish-American colonies had revolted against the mother country, Bello no longer rejoices at the success of Spanish arms nor grieves over their losses, as he had done when he wrote Á la victoria de Bailén.

Pérez Bonalde: see note to p. 214.

222.—5. The Venezuelan flag is yellow, blue and red with seven small white stars in the center.

225.—La carcelera: the words and music of this song and of the first that follows are taken from the Cancionero salmantino (Dámaso Ledesma), Madrid, 1907.

227.—La cachucha: the words and music of this song and of the five that immediately follow are taken from Poesías populares (Tomás Segarra), Leipzig, 1862.

238.—El trágala: (lit., the swallow it) a song with which the Spanish liberals taunted the partizans of an absolute government.

242.—Himno de Riego: a song to the liberal general, Rafael de Riego (1784-1823), who initiated the revolution of 1820 in Spain and proclaimed at Cabezas de San Juan the constitution of 1812. Cf. Versification, p. lxxix.

251.—Himno Nacional de Cuba, called also the Himno de Bayamo, on account of the importance of Bayamo (see in Vocab.) in the Cuban revolution of 1868. Note the ternary movement of this song, and see Versification, p. lxxiii.