Rimas

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer(1871)

Information

The work Rimas was written by the author Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer. Although he lived much of his life in the age of realism, Becquer was a romantic author and that means that he was a delayed author of his time.Romanticism was a an artistic, literary and intellectual time and movement that prevailed in Europe especially in the second quarter of the nineteenth century, characterized by its individualistic positions and its independence from classical precepts.The attitude of the human being, dissatisfied with all that surrounds him, takes refuge in his own self, and probes his intimacy (feelings, emotions and dreams), and rebels against all obstacles to his freedom and he resists putting limits on his imagination . The romantic collides with a hostile reality and does not respond to his illusions.The works have a sense of deep disappointment and pessimism, which causes great confusion. Their features are:• Individualism and subjectivism.• Search for singularity, original and unique.• Defense of freedom in all areas of life and art• What implies a rebellious attitude.• Exaltation of feelings, sensitivity and imagination.• Do not look for reasoning• The presence of an inaccessible, wild landscape, being the projection of the poet’s feelings.“The dark swallows will return on your balcony to hang their nests, and again with the wing to their playing crystals will call me.But those who flight restrained your beauty and my happiness to contemplate, those who learned our names ... those ... will not return! “

In the 86 rhymes left by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (Seville, 1836-Madrid, 1870), the ‘poet of love and pain’ reveals the most significant moods of the experience of love, on the one hand, and the sense of poetic creation, on the other; the yearning to escape after disappointment reflects the whole range of feelings of frustrated love: spite, anger, total hopelessness ...

Because, for the most part, the rhymes affect the most elemental human traits, the fiber of an individual´s feelings, generalized from a triggering circumstance: love.

His ‘cadences that the air dilates in the shadows’ also make him the first poet of the lyrical sensibility of the twentieth century, and he is referred to as an ancestor by the great writers of today: from Luis Cernuda to Federico García Lorca, From Pablo Neruda to Vicente Aleixandre.

ESSAY QUESTIONS

REFERENCES

• Do you think the poet you’ve studied has explored universal themes? Justify your opinions, giving examples.

• “A good poet should evoke deep feelings in his audience.” With reference to the work(s) you have studied, do you think the author has achieved this?

• After you have studied the chosen poet, do you feel joy and optimism or do you have other feelings? With reference to the text, explain your point of view.

• Referring to one or more poems, do you think it/they has value today? Discuss what the reader can learn by reading this/these poem(s).

• Analyze the positive ideas and negative ideas of the work(s) you have studied. What impact have they had on you?

• What are the elements that you appreciate most in the work(s) you have studied? Justify your opinions, giving examples.

http://html.rincondelvago.com/rimas_gustavo-adolfo-becquer_22.htmlhttp://www.elresumen.com/libros/rimas.htmAQA Past Papers, Available: http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/languages/as-and-a-level/spanish-2695/past-papers-and-mark-schemes