Rubén Darío
Encyclopedia
Félix Rubén García Sarmiento (January 18, 1867, Metapa, Matagalpa, Nicaragua
– February 6, 1916, León, Nicaragua
), known as Rubén Darío, was a Nicaragua
n poet who initiated the Spanish-American literary movement known as modernismo
(modernism) that flourished at the end of the 19th century. Darío has had a great and lasting influence on 20th-century Spanish literature and journalism. He has been praised as the "Prince of Castilian Letters" and undisputed father of the modernismo literary movement.
after obtaining the necessary ecclesiastic permissions since they were second degree cousins. However, Manuel's conduct of allegedly engaging in excessive consumption of alcohol prompted Rosa to abandon her conjugal home and flee to the city of Metapa in Matagalpa where she gave birth to Félix Rubén. The couple made up and Rosa even gave birth to a second child, a daughter named Candida Rosa, who died a few days after being born. The marriage deteriorated again to the point where Rosa left her husband and moved in with her aunt, Bernarda Sarmiento. After a brief period of time, Rosa Sarmiento established a relationship with another man and moved with him to San Marcos de Colón, in Choluteca
, Honduras
. Although, according to his baptism, Rubén's true surname was García, his paternal family had been known by the surname Darío for many years. Rubén Darío explained it as follows in his autobiography:
Darío spent his childhood in the city of León. He was brought up by his mother's aunt and uncle, Félix and Bernarda, whom Darío considered, in his infancy, to be his real parents. (He reportedly, during during his first years in school, signed his assignments as Félix Rubén Ramírez.) He rarely spoke with his mother, who lived in Honduras, or with his father, who he referred to as "Uncle Manuel". Although little is known about his first years, it is documented that after the death of Félix Ramírez, in 1871, the family went through rough economic times and they considered sending young Rubén as a tailor's apprentice. According to his biographer Edelmiro Torres, he attended several schools in León before going on, during 1879 and 1880, to be educated by the Jesuits.
A precocious reader (according to his own testimony, he learned to read when he was three years old), he soon began to write his first verses: a sonnet written by him in 1879 is conserved, and he published for the first time in a newspaper when he was thirteen years old. The elegy, Una lagrima, which was published in the daily El Termometro (Rivas) on July 26, 1880. A little later he also collaborated in El Ensayo, a literary magazine in León, garnering attention as a "child poet". In these initial verses, according to Teodosio Fernández, his predominating influences were Spanish poets contemporary to José Zorrilla, Ramón de Campoamor, Gaspar Núñez de Arce and Ventura de la Vega. His writings of this time display a liberalism hostile to the excessive influence of the Roman Catholic Church, as documented in his essay, El jesuita, which was written in 1881. Regarding his political attitude, his most noteworthy influence was the Ecuador
ian Juan Montalvo
, whom he deliberately imitated in his first journalistic articles.
Around December 1881 he moved to the capital, Managua
, at the request of some liberal politicians that had conceived the idea that, given his gift for poetry, he should be educated in Europe at the expense of the public treasury. However, the anti-clerical tone of his verses did not convince the president of congress, the conservative Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Alfaro, and it was resolved that he would study in the Nicaraguan city of Granada
, but Rubén opted to stay in Managua
, where he continued his journalistic endeavour collaborating with the newspapers El Ferrocarril and El Porvenir de Nicaragua. In the capital, he fell in love with an eleven year old girl, Rosario Emelina Murillo, whom he wanted to marry. A little later, at the petition of his friends who wanted to delay his marriage plans, in August 1882, he embarked for El Salvador
.
, Darío was introduced to the president of the republic, Rafael Zaldivar, by Joaquín Mendez, a poet who took him under his wing. There, he met the Salvadoran poet Francisco Gavidia
, a connoisseur of French poetry. Under the auspices of Gavidia, Darío attempted, for the first time, to adapt the French Alexandrine
verse into Castilian metric.
Although he enjoyed much fame and an intense social life in El Salvador, participating in celebrations such as the centenary of the birth of Simon Bolivar
, things began to get worse. He encountered economic hardships and contracted smallpox. In October 1883, still convalescent, he returned to his native homeland. After his return, he briefly resided in León and then in Granada
but he finally moved again to Managua where he became an employee of the Biblioteca Nacional de Nicaragua (the Nicaraguan National Library) and he resumed his romance with Rosario Murillo. In May 1884 he was condemned for vagrancy and sentenced to eight days of public work, although he managed to evade the fulfillment of the sentence. During that time he continued experimenting with new poetic forms, and he even had a book ready for printing, which was going to be titled Epístolas y poemas. This second book also did not get published, it would have to wait until 1888 when it was finally published as Primeras notas. He tested his luck with theatre, and he released his first play, titled Cada oveja..., which had some success, but no copy remains. He found life in Managua unsatisfactory, and prompted by the advice of some friends, opted to embark for Chile on June 5, 1886.
During his stay in Chile, Darío had to endure continuous humiliation from the Chilean aristocracy that scorned him for his lack of refinement and for the color of his skin. Nonetheless, he managed to forge a few friendships, like the one with the son of the then president, the poet Pedro Balmaceda Toro. Soon after he published his first piece, Abrojos, in March 1887. He lived in Valparaiso for several months until September 1887 where he participated in several literary contests. In the month of July 1888, Azul, the key literary work of the modernist revolution that had just begun, was published in Valparaiso.
Azul... is a compilation of a series of poems and textual prose that had already been published in the Chilean media between December 1886 and June 1888. The book was not an immediate success, but it was well received by the influential Spanish novelist and literary critic Juan Valera, who published in the Madrid newspaper El Imparcial, in October 1888, two letters addressed to Darío, in which, although reproaching him for the excessive French influence in his writings (Valera's used the expression "galicismo mental" or 'mental Gallicism'), he recognized in Dario "[a] un prosista y un poeta de talento" ("a prose writer and poet of talent").
, which was at the time the most heavily circulated periodical in Hispanic America. A little after sending his first article to La Nacion, he set off on a trip back to Nicaragua. During a brief stop in Lima he met the writer Ricardo Palma. He arrived at the port in Corinto on March 7, 1889. In León, he was received as a guest of honor, but his stay in Nicaragua was brief, and he moved to San Salvador where he was named director of the periodical La Unión which was in favor of creating a unified Central American state. In San Salvador, he was married by law to Rafaela Contreras, daughter of a famous Honduran orator, Álvaro Contreras, on June 21, 1890. One day after the wedding there was a coup d'état against president (and general) Menéndez. The coup was mainly engineered by general Carlos Ezeta, who had been a guest at Darío's wedding, which ended with the death of his wife, which led him to remarry for a brief period, only for him to separate very shortly thereafter.
He decided to leave El Salvador despite job offers from the new president. He moved to Guatemala at the end of June, while his bride remained in El Salvador. Guatemalan president Manuel Lisandro Barillas was making preparations for a war against El Salvador. Darío published, in the Guatemalan newspaper El Imparcial, an article titled Historia Negra in which he denounced Ezeta's betrayal of Menéndez. In December 1890 he was tasked with directing a newly created newspaper, El Correo de la Tarde. That same year the second edition of his successful book Azul..., substantially expanded, and using Valera's letters, which catapulted him to literary fame, as prologue (it is now customary that these letters appear in every edition of this book), was published in Guatemala. In January 1891 his wife reunited with him in Guatemala and they were married by the church on February 11, 1891. Three months later, the periodical which Darío was editing, El Correo de la Tarde, ceased receiving government subsidies, which forced it to close. He moved to Costa Rica and installed himself in the country's capital, San Jose, in August 1891. While in Costa Rica
, where he was barely able to support his family, haunted by debt despite being employed, his first son, Rubén Darío Contreras, was born on November 12, 1891.
, where he met Julián del Casal and other artists, such as Aniceto Valdivia and Raoul Cay. On August 14, 1892, he disembarked in Santander, where he continued his journey to Spain via train. Among those with whom he interacted frequently were poets Gaspar Núñez de Arce, José Zorrilla and Salvador Rueda; novelists Juan Valera and Emelia Pardo Bazán; erudite Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo; and several distinguished politicians such as Emilio Castelar and Antonio Cánovas del Castillo. In November, he returned to Nicaragua, where he received a telegram from San Salvador notifying him of his wife's illness, who died on January 23, 1893.
At the onset of 1893, Ruben remained in Managua
, where he renewed his affairs with Rosario Murillo, whose family forced Darío to marry her.
Darío was well-received by the intellectual media of Buenos Aires
. He collaborated with several newspapers: in addition to La Nación, to which he was already a correspondent, he published articles in La Prensa, La Tribuna and El Tiempo, to name a few. His position as the Colombian consul was merely honorific, since, as Darío has stated in his autobiography: "no había casi colombianos en Buenos Aires y no existían transacciones ni cambios comerciales entre Colombia y la República Argentina." In the Argentinian capital he led a bohemian life-style and his abuse of alcohol led to the need for medical care in several occasions. Among the personalities with whom he dealt were the politician Bartolomé Mitre
, the Mexican poet Federico Gamboa, the Bolivia
n poet Ricardo Jaimes Freyre and the Argentinian poets Rafael Obligado and Leopoldo Lugones.
His mother, Rosa Sarmiento, died on May 3, 1895. In October 1895, the Colombian government abolished its consulate in Buenos Aires depriving Darío of an important source of income. As a remedy, he obtained a job as Carlos Carlés' secretary, who was the general director of the institution handling mail and telegrams in Argentina
. In 1896, in Buenos Aires
, Darío published two of his most crucial books: Los raros, a collection of articles about the writers that most interested him, and second, Prosas profanas y otros poemas, the book that established the most definite consecration of Spanish literary modernism. However popular it became, though, his work was not initially well received. His petitions to the Nicaraguan government for a diplomatic position went unattended; however, the poet discovered an opportunity to travel to Europe when he learned that La Nación needed a Correspondent in Spain to inform about the situation in the European country after Spain's disaster of 1898
. It is from the United States military intervention in Cuba that Ruben Darío coined, two years before José Enrique Rodó, the metaphorical opposition between Ariel (a personification of Latin America) and Calibán (a monster which metaphorically represents the United States of America.) On December 3, 1898, Darío decamped to Europe, arriving in Barcelona
three weeks later.
.) Among these young modernists there were a few writers that would later have important roles in Spanish literature such as Juan Ramón Jiménez, Ramón María del Valle-Inclán and Jacinto Benavente, and some that were prevalent in their time, like Francisco Villaespesa, Mariano Miguel de Val, director of the magazine Ateneo, and Emilio Carrere.
In 1899, Rubén Darío, who was still legally married to Rosario Murillo, met Francisca Sánchez del Pozo in the Casa de Campo of Madrid. Francisca was from Navalsauz in the province of Ávila
and would be his companion through the last years of his life. In April 1900, Darío visited Paris for a second time, commissioned by La Nación to cover the Exposition Universelle
that took place that year in the French capital city. His chronicles about this topic would later be compiled in the book Peregrinaciones.
During the first years of the 20th century, Darío lived in Paris, where in 1901 published the second edition of Prosas profanas. That same year Francisca and Rubén had a daughter. After giving birth she traveled to Paris to reunite with him, leaving the baby girl in the care of her grandparents. The girl died of smallpox during this period, without her father ever meeting her. In March 1903 he was appointed as consul by Nicaragua. His second child by Francisca was born in April 1903, but also died at a very young age. During those years, Darío traveled through Europe, visiting, among other countries, the United Kingdom
, Belgium
, Germany
, and Italy
. In 1905, he went to Spain as a member of a committee named by the Nicaraguan government whose task was to resolve a territorial dispute with Honduras
. That year he published, in Madrid, the third of his most important poetry books, Cantos de vida y esperanza, los cisnes y otros poemas, edited by Juan Ramón Jiménez. Some of his most memorable poems came to light in 1905, like "Salutación del optimista" and "A Roosevelt", in which he extols Hispanic traits in the face of the threat of United States imperialism. The second poem (below) was directed at then president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt
:eres el futuro invasor
de la América ingenua que tiene sangre indígena,
que aún reza a Jesucristo y aún habla en español}}
Ciudad Darío
Ciudad Darío is a municipality in the Matagalpa department of Nicaragua. It is the birthplace of poet Rubén Darío.Previously known as Metapa and Chocoyos even before that, Ciudad Darío is located 90 km from Managua...
– February 6, 1916, León, Nicaragua
León, Nicaragua
León is a department in northwestern Nicaragua . It is also the second largest city in Nicaragua, after Managua. It was founded by the Spaniards as Santiago de los Caballeros de León and rivals Granada, Nicaragua, in the number of historic Spanish colonial homes and churches...
), known as Rubén Darío, was a Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
n poet who initiated the Spanish-American literary movement known as modernismo
Modernismo
Modernismo is Spanish for modernism, however the term Modernism also indicates a more specific art movement:* Modernismo refers to a Spanish-American literary movement, best exemplified by Rubén Darío...
(modernism) that flourished at the end of the 19th century. Darío has had a great and lasting influence on 20th-century Spanish literature and journalism. He has been praised as the "Prince of Castilian Letters" and undisputed father of the modernismo literary movement.
Life
Manuel García and Rosa Sarmiento were married on April 26, 1866 in León, NicaraguaLeón, Nicaragua
León is a department in northwestern Nicaragua . It is also the second largest city in Nicaragua, after Managua. It was founded by the Spaniards as Santiago de los Caballeros de León and rivals Granada, Nicaragua, in the number of historic Spanish colonial homes and churches...
after obtaining the necessary ecclesiastic permissions since they were second degree cousins. However, Manuel's conduct of allegedly engaging in excessive consumption of alcohol prompted Rosa to abandon her conjugal home and flee to the city of Metapa in Matagalpa where she gave birth to Félix Rubén. The couple made up and Rosa even gave birth to a second child, a daughter named Candida Rosa, who died a few days after being born. The marriage deteriorated again to the point where Rosa left her husband and moved in with her aunt, Bernarda Sarmiento. After a brief period of time, Rosa Sarmiento established a relationship with another man and moved with him to San Marcos de Colón, in Choluteca
Choluteca, Choluteca
Choluteca is a municipality and the capital city of the Honduran department of the same name. Situated in southern Honduras between El Salvador and Nicaragua, the city is generally considered the regional center of southern Honduras and is a major transit point on the Pan-American Highway. It...
, Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
. Although, according to his baptism, Rubén's true surname was García, his paternal family had been known by the surname Darío for many years. Rubén Darío explained it as follows in his autobiography:
According to what some of the old people in that town of my childhood have referred to me, my great-grandfather had Darío as his nickname or first name. In this small town he was known by everyone as "Don Darío" and his entire family as the Daríos. It was in this way that his and all his family last name began to disappear to the point where my paternal great-grandmother already replaced it when she signed documents as Rita Darío; becoming patronymic and acquiring legal stand and validity since my father, who was a merchant, carried out all his businesses as Manuel Darío...
Darío spent his childhood in the city of León. He was brought up by his mother's aunt and uncle, Félix and Bernarda, whom Darío considered, in his infancy, to be his real parents. (He reportedly, during during his first years in school, signed his assignments as Félix Rubén Ramírez.) He rarely spoke with his mother, who lived in Honduras, or with his father, who he referred to as "Uncle Manuel". Although little is known about his first years, it is documented that after the death of Félix Ramírez, in 1871, the family went through rough economic times and they considered sending young Rubén as a tailor's apprentice. According to his biographer Edelmiro Torres, he attended several schools in León before going on, during 1879 and 1880, to be educated by the Jesuits.
A precocious reader (according to his own testimony, he learned to read when he was three years old), he soon began to write his first verses: a sonnet written by him in 1879 is conserved, and he published for the first time in a newspaper when he was thirteen years old. The elegy, Una lagrima, which was published in the daily El Termometro (Rivas) on July 26, 1880. A little later he also collaborated in El Ensayo, a literary magazine in León, garnering attention as a "child poet". In these initial verses, according to Teodosio Fernández, his predominating influences were Spanish poets contemporary to José Zorrilla, Ramón de Campoamor, Gaspar Núñez de Arce and Ventura de la Vega. His writings of this time display a liberalism hostile to the excessive influence of the Roman Catholic Church, as documented in his essay, El jesuita, which was written in 1881. Regarding his political attitude, his most noteworthy influence was the Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
ian Juan Montalvo
Juan Montalvo
Juan María Montalvo Fiallos was an Ecuadorian author and essayist.Born in Ambato to José Marcos Montalvo and Josefa Fiallos, he studied philosophy and law in Quito before returning to his hometown in 1854. He held diplomatic posts in Italy and France from 1857 to 1859...
, whom he deliberately imitated in his first journalistic articles.
Around December 1881 he moved to the capital, Managua
Managua
Managua is the capital city of Nicaragua as well as the department and municipality by the same name. It is the largest city in Nicaragua in terms of population and geographic size. Located on the southwestern shore of Lake Xolotlán or Lake Managua, the city was declared the national capital in...
, at the request of some liberal politicians that had conceived the idea that, given his gift for poetry, he should be educated in Europe at the expense of the public treasury. However, the anti-clerical tone of his verses did not convince the president of congress, the conservative Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Alfaro, and it was resolved that he would study in the Nicaraguan city of Granada
Granada, Nicaragua
Granada is a city in western Nicaragua and the capital of the Granada Department. With an estimated population of 110,326 , it is Nicaragua's fourth most populous city. Granada is historically one of Nicaragua's most important cities, economically and politically...
, but Rubén opted to stay in Managua
Managua
Managua is the capital city of Nicaragua as well as the department and municipality by the same name. It is the largest city in Nicaragua in terms of population and geographic size. Located on the southwestern shore of Lake Xolotlán or Lake Managua, the city was declared the national capital in...
, where he continued his journalistic endeavour collaborating with the newspapers El Ferrocarril and El Porvenir de Nicaragua. In the capital, he fell in love with an eleven year old girl, Rosario Emelina Murillo, whom he wanted to marry. A little later, at the petition of his friends who wanted to delay his marriage plans, in August 1882, he embarked for El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
.
In El Salvador
In El SalvadorEl Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
, Darío was introduced to the president of the republic, Rafael Zaldivar, by Joaquín Mendez, a poet who took him under his wing. There, he met the Salvadoran poet Francisco Gavidia
Francisco Gavidia
Francisco Gavidia was a Salvadoran writer, educator and journalist. His poetry evolved from romanticism to a reflective direction and conceptual character...
, a connoisseur of French poetry. Under the auspices of Gavidia, Darío attempted, for the first time, to adapt the French Alexandrine
Alexandrine
An alexandrine is a line of poetic meter comprising 12 syllables. Alexandrines are common in the German literature of the Baroque period and in French poetry of the early modern and modern periods. Drama in English often used alexandrines before Marlowe and Shakespeare, by whom it was supplanted...
verse into Castilian metric.
Although he enjoyed much fame and an intense social life in El Salvador, participating in celebrations such as the centenary of the birth of Simon Bolivar
Simón Bolívar
Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte y Yeiter, commonly known as Simón Bolívar was a Venezuelan military and political leader...
, things began to get worse. He encountered economic hardships and contracted smallpox. In October 1883, still convalescent, he returned to his native homeland. After his return, he briefly resided in León and then in Granada
Granada, Nicaragua
Granada is a city in western Nicaragua and the capital of the Granada Department. With an estimated population of 110,326 , it is Nicaragua's fourth most populous city. Granada is historically one of Nicaragua's most important cities, economically and politically...
but he finally moved again to Managua where he became an employee of the Biblioteca Nacional de Nicaragua (the Nicaraguan National Library) and he resumed his romance with Rosario Murillo. In May 1884 he was condemned for vagrancy and sentenced to eight days of public work, although he managed to evade the fulfillment of the sentence. During that time he continued experimenting with new poetic forms, and he even had a book ready for printing, which was going to be titled Epístolas y poemas. This second book also did not get published, it would have to wait until 1888 when it was finally published as Primeras notas. He tested his luck with theatre, and he released his first play, titled Cada oveja..., which had some success, but no copy remains. He found life in Managua unsatisfactory, and prompted by the advice of some friends, opted to embark for Chile on June 5, 1886.
In Chile
After making a name for himself with love poems and stories, Darío left Nicaragua for Chile in 1886, and disembarked in Valparaiso on June 23, 1886. In Chile he stayed with Poirier and a poet by the name of Eduardo de la Barra. Together they co-authored a sentimental novel titled Emelina, with which they entered in a literary contest (although they did not win). It was because of his friendship with Poirier that Darío was able to obtain a job in the newspaper La Época, in Santiago on July 1886.Azul... is a compilation of a series of poems and textual prose that had already been published in the Chilean media between December 1886 and June 1888. The book was not an immediate success, but it was well received by the influential Spanish novelist and literary critic Juan Valera, who published in the Madrid newspaper El Imparcial, in October 1888, two letters addressed to Darío, in which, although reproaching him for the excessive French influence in his writings (Valera's used the expression "galicismo mental" or 'mental Gallicism'), he recognized in Dario "[a] un prosista y un poeta de talento" ("a prose writer and poet of talent").
Journey in Central America
The newly attained fame allowed Darío to obtain the position of newspaper correspondent for La Nación of Buenos AiresBuenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, which was at the time the most heavily circulated periodical in Hispanic America. A little after sending his first article to La Nacion, he set off on a trip back to Nicaragua. During a brief stop in Lima he met the writer Ricardo Palma. He arrived at the port in Corinto on March 7, 1889. In León, he was received as a guest of honor, but his stay in Nicaragua was brief, and he moved to San Salvador where he was named director of the periodical La Unión which was in favor of creating a unified Central American state. In San Salvador, he was married by law to Rafaela Contreras, daughter of a famous Honduran orator, Álvaro Contreras, on June 21, 1890. One day after the wedding there was a coup d'état against president (and general) Menéndez. The coup was mainly engineered by general Carlos Ezeta, who had been a guest at Darío's wedding, which ended with the death of his wife, which led him to remarry for a brief period, only for him to separate very shortly thereafter.
He decided to leave El Salvador despite job offers from the new president. He moved to Guatemala at the end of June, while his bride remained in El Salvador. Guatemalan president Manuel Lisandro Barillas was making preparations for a war against El Salvador. Darío published, in the Guatemalan newspaper El Imparcial, an article titled Historia Negra in which he denounced Ezeta's betrayal of Menéndez. In December 1890 he was tasked with directing a newly created newspaper, El Correo de la Tarde. That same year the second edition of his successful book Azul..., substantially expanded, and using Valera's letters, which catapulted him to literary fame, as prologue (it is now customary that these letters appear in every edition of this book), was published in Guatemala. In January 1891 his wife reunited with him in Guatemala and they were married by the church on February 11, 1891. Three months later, the periodical which Darío was editing, El Correo de la Tarde, ceased receiving government subsidies, which forced it to close. He moved to Costa Rica and installed himself in the country's capital, San Jose, in August 1891. While in Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
, where he was barely able to support his family, haunted by debt despite being employed, his first son, Rubén Darío Contreras, was born on November 12, 1891.
Travels
In 1892, he left his family in Costa Rica, and traveled to Guatemala and Nicaragua, in search for better economic prospects. Eventually, the Nicaraguan government named him a member of the Nicaraguan delegation to Madrid where events were going to take place to commemorate the fourth centennial of the discovery of America. During the trip to Spain, Darío made a stop in HavanaHavana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
, where he met Julián del Casal and other artists, such as Aniceto Valdivia and Raoul Cay. On August 14, 1892, he disembarked in Santander, where he continued his journey to Spain via train. Among those with whom he interacted frequently were poets Gaspar Núñez de Arce, José Zorrilla and Salvador Rueda; novelists Juan Valera and Emelia Pardo Bazán; erudite Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo; and several distinguished politicians such as Emilio Castelar and Antonio Cánovas del Castillo. In November, he returned to Nicaragua, where he received a telegram from San Salvador notifying him of his wife's illness, who died on January 23, 1893.
At the onset of 1893, Ruben remained in Managua
Managua
Managua is the capital city of Nicaragua as well as the department and municipality by the same name. It is the largest city in Nicaragua in terms of population and geographic size. Located on the southwestern shore of Lake Xolotlán or Lake Managua, the city was declared the national capital in...
, where he renewed his affairs with Rosario Murillo, whose family forced Darío to marry her.
In Argentina
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
. He collaborated with several newspapers: in addition to La Nación, to which he was already a correspondent, he published articles in La Prensa, La Tribuna and El Tiempo, to name a few. His position as the Colombian consul was merely honorific, since, as Darío has stated in his autobiography: "no había casi colombianos en Buenos Aires y no existían transacciones ni cambios comerciales entre Colombia y la República Argentina." In the Argentinian capital he led a bohemian life-style and his abuse of alcohol led to the need for medical care in several occasions. Among the personalities with whom he dealt were the politician Bartolomé Mitre
Bartolomé Mitre
Bartolomé Mitre Martínez was an Argentine statesman, military figure, and author. He was the President of Argentina from 1862 to 1868.-Life and times:...
, the Mexican poet Federico Gamboa, the Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
n poet Ricardo Jaimes Freyre and the Argentinian poets Rafael Obligado and Leopoldo Lugones.
His mother, Rosa Sarmiento, died on May 3, 1895. In October 1895, the Colombian government abolished its consulate in Buenos Aires depriving Darío of an important source of income. As a remedy, he obtained a job as Carlos Carlés' secretary, who was the general director of the institution handling mail and telegrams in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
. In 1896, in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, Darío published two of his most crucial books: Los raros, a collection of articles about the writers that most interested him, and second, Prosas profanas y otros poemas, the book that established the most definite consecration of Spanish literary modernism. However popular it became, though, his work was not initially well received. His petitions to the Nicaraguan government for a diplomatic position went unattended; however, the poet discovered an opportunity to travel to Europe when he learned that La Nación needed a Correspondent in Spain to inform about the situation in the European country after Spain's disaster of 1898
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
. It is from the United States military intervention in Cuba that Ruben Darío coined, two years before José Enrique Rodó, the metaphorical opposition between Ariel (a personification of Latin America) and Calibán (a monster which metaphorically represents the United States of America.) On December 3, 1898, Darío decamped to Europe, arriving in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
three weeks later.
Between Paris and Spain
Darío arrived in Spain committed to sending four chronicles per month to La Nación about the prevalent mood in the Spanish nation after the defeat it suffered to the United States of America, and the loss of its colonial possessions; Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam. These chronicles would end up being compiled in a book that was published in 1901, titled España Contemporánea. Crónicas y retratos literarios. In the writings, he expresses his profound sympathy towards Spain, and his confidence in Spain's revival, despite the state of despair he observed. In Spain, Darío won the admiration of a group of young poets who defended Modernism (a literary movement that was not absolutely accepted by the most established writers, especially those belonging to the Real Academia EspañolaReal Academia Española
The Royal Spanish Academy is the official royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, but is affiliated with national language academies in twenty-one other hispanophone nations through the Association of Spanish Language Academies...
.) Among these young modernists there were a few writers that would later have important roles in Spanish literature such as Juan Ramón Jiménez, Ramón María del Valle-Inclán and Jacinto Benavente, and some that were prevalent in their time, like Francisco Villaespesa, Mariano Miguel de Val, director of the magazine Ateneo, and Emilio Carrere.
In 1899, Rubén Darío, who was still legally married to Rosario Murillo, met Francisca Sánchez del Pozo in the Casa de Campo of Madrid. Francisca was from Navalsauz in the province of Ávila
Ávila (province)
Ávila is a province of central-western Spain, in the southern part of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is bordered on the south by the provinces of Toledo and Cáceres, on the west by Salamanca, on the north by Valladolid, and on the east by Segovia and Madrid. Ávila has a...
and would be his companion through the last years of his life. In April 1900, Darío visited Paris for a second time, commissioned by La Nación to cover the Exposition Universelle
Exposition Universelle (1900)
The Exposition Universelle of 1900 was a world's fair held in Paris, France, from April 15 to November 12, 1900, to celebrate the achievements of the past century and to accelerate development into the next...
that took place that year in the French capital city. His chronicles about this topic would later be compiled in the book Peregrinaciones.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. In 1905, he went to Spain as a member of a committee named by the Nicaraguan government whose task was to resolve a territorial dispute with Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
. That year he published, in Madrid, the third of his most important poetry books, Cantos de vida y esperanza, los cisnes y otros poemas, edited by Juan Ramón Jiménez. Some of his most memorable poems came to light in 1905, like "Salutación del optimista" and "A Roosevelt", in which he extols Hispanic traits in the face of the threat of United States imperialism. The second poem (below) was directed at then president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
:eres el futuro invasor
de la América ingenua que tiene sangre indígena,
que aún reza a Jesucristo y aún habla en español}}
- You are the United States you are the future invader of the naive America that has indigenous bloodthat still prays to Jesus Christ and that still speaks Spanish
In 1906 he participated as secretary of the Nicaraguan delegation to the Third Pan-American Conference
Pan-American Conference
The Conferences of American States, commonly referred to as the Pan-American Conferences, were meetings of the Pan-American Union, an international organization for cooperation on trade and other issues. They were first introduced by James G. Blaine of Maine in order to establish closer ties...
held in Río de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
where he was inspired to write his poem "Salutación del águila", which offers a view of the United States very different to that offered in prior poems:
a extender sobre el Sur tu gran sombra continental,
a traer en tus garras, anilladas de rojos brillantes,
una palma de gloria, del color de la inmensa esperanza,
y en tu pico la oliva de una vasta y fecunda paz.}}
- Come, magic eagle with the great and strong wings to extend over the South your great continental shade, to bring in your claws, adorned with red bright rings, a palm of glory of the color of the immense hope, and in your beak the olive branch of a vast and fecund peace.
This poem was criticized by several writers who did not understand Ruben's sudden change of opinion with respect to the United States' influence in Latin America. In Río de Janeiro, the poet was involved in an obscure romance with an aristocrat, believed to be the daughter of the Russian ambassador in Brazil. It seems that he then conceived the idea of divorcing Rosario Murillo, with whom he had been separated for years. On his way back to Europe, he made a brief stop in Buenos Aires. In Paris, he reunited with Francisca and together they spent the winter of 1907 on the island of Mallorca
Mallorca
Majorca or Mallorca is an island located in the Mediterranean Sea, one of the Balearic Islands.The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Cabrera Archipelago is administratively grouped with Majorca...
, which he later frequented the company of Gabriel Alomar
Gabriel Alomar
Gabriel Alomar was a poet, essayist, and educator of the early twentieth century in Spain, closely related to the Catalan art movement Modernisme...
, a futurist
Futurism
Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century.Futurism or futurist may refer to:* Afrofuturism, an African-American and African diaspora subculture* Cubo-Futurism* Ego-Futurism...
poet, and painter Santiago Rusiñol
Santiago Rusiñol
Santiago Rusiñol i Prats was a Catalan post-impressionist/Symbolist painter, poet, and playwright.He was born in Barcelona in 1861, and died in Aranjuez in 1931 while painting its famous gardens....
. He began writing a novel, La Isla de Oro, which he never finished, although some of its chapters were published in La Nación. His tranquility was interrupted by the arrival of his wife, Rosario Murillo, in Paris. She would not grant him a divorce unless she was guaranteed sufficient compensation, which Darío felt was disproportionate. By March 1907, when he was leaving for Paris, his alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
was very advanced and he fell gravely ill. On recuperating, he returned to Paris, but he was unable to reach an agreement with his wife, so he decided to return to Nicaragua to present his case in court.
Ambassador in Madrid
After two brief stops in New York and Panama, Darío arrived in Nicaragua where he was given an honoring welcome. Regardless of the tributes offered to him, he was unsuccessful in obtaining a divorce. In addition, he was not paid what was owed to him due to his position as consul, which made him unable to return to Paris. After a few months he managed to be named resident minister in Madrid for the Nicaraguan government of José Santos ZelayaJosé Santos Zelaya
José Santos Zelaya López was the President of Nicaragua from 25 July 1893 to 21 December 1909.-Early life:He was a son of José María Zelaya Irigoyen, born in Nicaragua, and mistress Juana López Ramírez...
. He had economic problems since his limited budget barely allowed him to meet all of his delegation's expenses, and he went through much economic difficulty during his period as Nicaraguan ambassador. He managed to get by, partly with to his salary from La Nación and partly with the help of his friend and director of the magazine Ateneo, Mariano Miguel de Val, who, while the economic situation was at its toughest, offered himself as secretary to the Nicaraguan delegation at no charge and offered his house, number 27 in Serrano street, to serve as the diplomatic quarters of the Nicaraguan delegation. When Zelaya was overthrown, Darío was forced to renounce to his diplomatic post, which he did on February 25, 1909. He remained loyal to Zelaya, whom he had heavily praised in his book Viaje a Nicaragua e Intermezzo tropical and with whom he had collaborated in the writing of Estados Unidos y la revolución de Nicaragua, in which the United States and the Guatemalan dictator Manuel Estrada Cabrera
Manuel Estrada Cabrera
Manuel José Estrada Cabrera was President of Guatemala from 8 February 1898 to 15 April 1920.Manuel Estrada forcibly took the presidency after the assassination of José María Reina. The Guatemalan cabinet called an emergency meeting to appoint a new successor, but declined to invite the General...
were accused of planning the toppling of the Zelaya government. During his time as ambassador, there was a rift between Dario and his former friend Alejandro Sawa, whose requests for economic assistance went unheard by Dario. The correspondence between them gives room to interpret that Sawa was the real author of several of the articles that Dario had published in La Nación.
His last years
Porfirio Díaz
José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori was a Mexican-American War volunteer and French intervention hero, an accomplished general and the President of Mexico continuously from 1876 to 1911, with the exception of a brief term in 1876 when he left Juan N...
refused to receive the writer, an attitude that was probably influenced by United States diplomacy. Dario, however, was well received by the people of Mexico, who supported Darío and not the government.
In his autobiography, Darío relates those protests with the Mexican Revolution, which was about to occur:
For the first time in thirty three years of absolute control, the house of the old Caesarean emperor had been stoned. One could say that that was the first thunder of the revolution that brought the dethronement.In light of the slight by the Mexican government, Darío left for La Habana, where, under the effects of alcohol, he attempted to commit suicide, perhaps triggered by the way he had been scorned. In November 1910 he returned to Paris, where he continued being a correspondent for La Nación and where he took a position for the Mexican Ministry of Public Instruction (Ministerio de Instrucción Pública) which may have been given to him as a compensation for the public humiliation inflicted upon him.
In 1912 he accepted an offer from the Uruguayan businessmen Rubén and Alfredo Guido to direct the magazines Mundial and Elegancias. To promote said publications, he went on tour in Latin America visiting, among other cities, Río de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
, São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
, Montevideo
Montevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
and Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
. It was also around this time that the poet wrote his autobiography, which was published in the magazine Caras y caretas under the title of La vida de Rubén Darío escrita por él mismo; and the work Historia de mis libros which is very important when learning about his literary evolution.
After ending his journey due to the end of his contract with the Guido brothers, he returned to Paris and in 1913, invited by Joan Sureda, he traveled to Mallorca
Mallorca
Majorca or Mallorca is an island located in the Mediterranean Sea, one of the Balearic Islands.The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Cabrera Archipelago is administratively grouped with Majorca...
and found quarters at the Carthusian monastery of Valldemosa, where many decades into the past figures such as Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
and George Sand
George Sand
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant , best known by her pseudonym George Sand , was a French novelist and memoirist.-Life:...
had resided. It was in this island where Ruben began writing the novel El oro de Mallorca, which was a fictionalization of his autobiography. The deterioration of his mental health became accentuated, however, due to his alcoholism. In December he headed back to Barcelona, where he lodged at General Zelaya's house. Zelaya had taken Darío under his wing when he was president of Nicaragua. In January 1914 he returned to Paris, where he entered a lengthy legal battle with the Guido brothers, who still owed him a large sum of money for the work he had done for them. In May he moved to Barcelona, where he published his last important work of poetry, Canto a la Argentina y otros poemas, which includes the laudatory poem he had written to Argentina, which had been made to order for La Nación.
With the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Darío departed for the United States, leaving his wife Francisca and their two surviving sons behind. In January 1915, he started reading his poems at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in New York. By the end of 1915 he returned to Nicaragua. He later resigned his diplomatic post and moved to Paris where he devoted himself to preparing new books, such as Canto a la Argentina. At this point, his alcoholism caused him frequent health problems and psychological crises. His health began deteriorating enormously in the last few years of his life. He reportedly suffered frequent hallucinations and became obsessed with the idea of death.
Death
Darío died on February 6, 1916, aged 49, in LeónLeón, Nicaragua
León is a department in northwestern Nicaragua . It is also the second largest city in Nicaragua, after Managua. It was founded by the Spaniards as Santiago de los Caballeros de León and rivals Granada, Nicaragua, in the number of historic Spanish colonial homes and churches...
. The funeral lasted several days, and he was interred in the city's cathedral on February 13, 1916, at the base of the statue of Saint Paul near the chancel
Chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...
under a lion made of marble by the sculptor Jorge Navas Cordonero.
Influences
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
, particularly Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
. Later on, and in a decisive fashion, Darío was influenced by the parnassians: Théophile Gautier
Théophile Gautier
Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, art critic and literary critic....
, Catulle Mendès
Catulle Mendès
Catulle Mendès was a French poet and man of letters.Of Portuguese Jewish extraction, he was born in Bordeaux. He early established himself in Paris and promptly attained notoriety by the publication in the Revue fantaisiste of his Roman d'une nuit, for which he was condemned to a month's...
, and José María de Heredia
José María de Heredia
José-Maria de Heredia was a Cuban-born French poet. He was the fifteenth member elected for seat 4 of the Académie française during 1894.-Early years:...
. The final defining element of Darianian aesthetic is his admiration towards the symbolists
Symbolism (arts)
Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the style had its beginnings with the publication Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire...
, especially Paul Verlaine
Paul Verlaine
Paul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.-Early life:...
. Recapitulating his own poetic trajectory in the initial poem of Cantos de vida y esperanza (1905) Darío himself synthesized his main influences when he affirms that he was "strong with Hugo and ambiguous with Verlaine" ("con Hugo fuerte y con Verlaine ambiguo".)
In the section "Palabras Liminares" of Prosas Profanas (1896) he had already written a paragraph that reveals the importance of French culture in the development of his literary work:
The old Spaniard with a white beard points towards a series of illustrious portraits: "This one - he says - is the great Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, one-handed genius; this one is Lope de VegaLope de VegaFélix Arturo Lope de Vega y Carpio was a Spanish playwright and poet. He was one of the key figures in the Spanish Golden Century Baroque literature...
, this one is GarcilasoGarcilaso de la VegaGarcilaso de la Vega was a Spanish soldier and poet. He was the most influential poet to introduce Italian Renaissance verse forms, poetic techniques and themes to Spain.-Biography:...
, this one QuintanaManuel José QuintanaManuel José Quintana y Lorenzo , was a Spanish poet and man of letters. He was born at Madrid. After completing his studies at Salamanca he was called to the bar....
." I ask him for the noble man GraciánBaltasar GraciánBaltasar Gracián y Morales, SJ was a Spanish Jesuit and baroque prose writer. He was born in Belmonte, near Calatayud .-Biography:...
, for Teresa of ÁvilaTeresa of ÁvilaSaint Teresa of Ávila, also called Saint Teresa of Jesus, baptized as Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada, was a prominent Spanish mystic, Roman Catholic saint, Carmelite nun, and writer of the Counter Reformation, and theologian of contemplative life through mental prayer...
, for the brave GóngoraLuis de GóngoraLuis de Góngora y Argote was a Spanish Baroque lyric poet. Góngora and his lifelong rival, Francisco de Quevedo, are widely considered to be the most prominent Spanish poets of their age. His style is characterized by what was called culteranismo, also known as Gongorism...
and the strongest of all, Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas. Then I say: "ShakespeareWilliam ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
! DanteDante AlighieriDurante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...
! HugoVictor HugoVictor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
...! (and in my head: VerlainePaul VerlainePaul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.-Early life:...
...!)"
Then, when saying goodbye: "-Old man, it is important to say: my wife is from my land; my mistress is from Paris."
Los raros is an illustrative volume regarding literary tastes, which he published on the same year as Prosas profanas, and dedicated to briefly glossing some of the writers and intellectuals towards whom he felt profound admiration. Amongst those in the book we find Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
, Villiers de l'Isle Adam, Léon Bloy
Léon Bloy
Léon Bloy , was a French novelist, essayist, pamphleteer and poet.-Biography:Bloy was born in Notre-Dame-de-Sanilhac, in the arondissement of Périgueux, Dordogne. He was the second of six sons of Voltairean freethinker and stern disciplinarian Jean Baptiste Bloy and his wife Anne-Marie Carreau,...
, Paul Verlaine
Paul Verlaine
Paul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.-Early life:...
, Lautréamont, Eugenio de Castro
Eugênio de Castro
Eugénio de Castro with the e accented is also a Portuguese writerEugênio de Castro is a municipality of the western part of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil...
and José Martí
José Martí
José Julián Martí Pérez was a Cuban national hero and an important figure in Latin American literature. In his short life he was a poet, an essayist, a journalist, a revolutionary philosopher, a translator, a professor, a publisher, and a political theorist. He was also a part of the Cuban...
(the latter being the only one mentioned who wrote their literary work in Spanish.) The predominance of French culture is more than evident. Darío wrote: "Modernism is nothing more than Spanish verse and prose passed through the fine sieve of the good French verse and the good French prose." Setting aside his initial stage, before Azul..., in which his poetry owes a great deal to the great names of 19th century Spanish poetry, such as Núñez de Arce
Gaspar Núñez de Arce
Gaspar Núñez de Arce was a Spanish poet, dramatist and statesman.He was born at Valladolid, where he was educated for the priesthood. He had no vocation for the ecclesiastical state, plunged into literature, and produced a play entitled Amor y Orgullo which was acted at Toledo in 1849...
and Campoamor, Darío was a great admirer of Bécquer
Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
Gustavo Adolfo Domínguez Bastida, better known as Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, was a Spanish post-romanticist writer of poetry and short stories, now considered one of the most important figures in Spanish literature. He adopted the alias of Bécquer as his brother Valeriano Bécquer, a painter, had...
. Spanish themes are well represented in his work, already in Prosas profanas and, specially, after his second trip to Spain, in 1899. Conscious of contemporaneous Spanish decadence in politics and the arts (a preoccupation he shared with the so called Generation of '98
Generation of '98
The Generation of '98 was a group of novelists, poets, essayists, and philosophers active in Spain at the time of the Spanish-American War ....
), he frequently was inspired by characters and elements of the past. Regarding authors in other languages, it is worth mentioning that he felt a profound admiration towards three writers from the United States: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
, Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
and Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman
Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
.
Evolution
The evolution of Darío's poetry is marked by the publication of the books in which scholars have recognized his fundamental works: Azul... (1888), Prosas profanas y otros poemas (1896) y Cantos de vida y esperanza (1905). Before Azul... Darío wrote three books and a great number of loose poems which make up what is known as his "literary prehistory" ("prehistoria literaria".) The books are Epístolas y poemas (written in 1885, but published until 1888, under the title Primeras notas), Rimas (1887) and Abrojos (1887). In the first of these works his readings of Spanish classics is patent, as is the stamp of Victor Hugo. The metric is classic and the tone is predominantly romanticRomanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
.
Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
Gustavo Adolfo Domínguez Bastida, better known as Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, was a Spanish post-romanticist writer of poetry and short stories, now considered one of the most important figures in Spanish literature. He adopted the alias of Bécquer as his brother Valeriano Bécquer, a painter, had...
's Rimas, hence, it is not strange that the intimate tone adopted in this book is very similar to the one present in the writings of the Sevillian
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
poet. It consists of only fourteen poems, of amorous tone, whose expressive means are characteristically bécquerian.
Azul... (1888) has as many tales in prose as poems, which caught the critics' attention through their metric variety. It presents us some of the preoccupations characteristic of Dario, such as his expression of dissatisfaction towards the bourgeoisie (see, for example, the tale "El rey burgués") A new edition of the text was published in 1890, this one was augmented with several new texts, amongst which were sonnet
Sonnet
A sonnet is one of several forms of poetry that originate in Europe, mainly Provence and Italy. A sonnet commonly has 14 lines. The term "sonnet" derives from the Occitan word sonet and the Italian word sonetto, both meaning "little song" or "little sound"...
s in Alexandrine
Alexandrine
An alexandrine is a line of poetic meter comprising 12 syllables. Alexandrines are common in the German literature of the Baroque period and in French poetry of the early modern and modern periods. Drama in English often used alexandrines before Marlowe and Shakespeare, by whom it was supplanted...
verses. Modernism's stage of plenitude and of the Darian poetry is marked by the book Prosas profanas y otros poemas, a collection of poems in which the presence of the erotic is more important, and which contains some esoteric themes (such as in the poem "Coloquio de los centauros"). In this book, we can also find Darío's own eclectic imagery. In 1905, he published Cantos de vida y esperanza, which announces a more intimate and reflexive trend in his works, without renouncing to the themes that have become linked to the identity of Modernism. At the same time, civic poetry appears in his work, with poems like "A Roosevelt", a trend that would be accentuated in El canto errante (1907) and in Canto a la Argentina y otros poemas (1914). The intimate slant in his work is accentuated, instead, in Poema del otoño y otros poemas (1910), in which he shows an amazing formal plainness in his work.
Assessment
Roberto González Echevarría considers him the beginning of the modern era in Spanish languageSpanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
poetry: "In Spanish, there is poetry before and after Rubén Darío. ... the first major poet in the language since the 17th century ... He ushered Spanish-language poetry into the modern era by incorporating the aesthetic ideals and modern anxieties of Parnassiens and Symbolism, as Garcilaso
Garcilaso de la Vega
Garcilaso de la Vega was a Spanish soldier and poet. He was the most influential poet to introduce Italian Renaissance verse forms, poetic techniques and themes to Spain.-Biography:...
had infused Castilian
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
verse with Italianate forms and spirit in the 16th century, transforming it forever. Darío and Garcilaso led the two most profound poetic revolutions in Spanish, yet neither is well-known abroad, except by Hispanists and poets of the Spanish language including Octavio Paz and Giannina Braschi. They have not traveled well, particularly in English-speaking countries, where they are all but unknown."
In honor of the centenary of Darío's birth in 1967, the government of Nicaragua struck a 50 cordoba gold medal and issued a set of postage stamps. The set consists of eight airmail stamps (20 centavos depicted) and two souvenir sheets.
Further reading
English:- Poet-errant: a biography of Rubén Darío/Charles Dunton Watland., 1965
- Rubén Darío centennial studies/Miguel Gonzalez-Gerth, 1970
- Critical approaches to Rubén Darío/Keith Ellis, 1974
- "Rubén Darío and the romantic search for unity"/Cathy Login Jrade., 1983
- Beyond the glitter: the language of gems in modernista writers/Rosemary C. LoDato, 1999
- An art alienated from itself: studies in Spanish American modernism/Priscilla Pearsall, 1984
- Modernism, Rubén Darío, and the poetics of despair/Alberto Acereda, 2004
- Darío, Borges, Neruda and the ancient quarrel between poets and philosophers/Jason Wilson, 2000
- The meaning and function of music in Ruben Dario a comparative approach/Raymond Skyrme, 1969
- Selected Poems of Rubén Darío/Lysander Kemp, trans., 1965. ISBN 978-0-292-77615-9
Spanish:
- Miradas críticas sobre Rubén Darío/Nicasio Urbina, 2005
- La poesía de Rubén Darío: ensayo sobre el tema y los temas del poeta/Pedro Salinas, 2005
- Luis Cernuda y Rubén Darío: modernismo e ironía/James Valender, 2004
- Rubén Darío visto por Juan de Dios Vanegas/Juan de Dios Vanegas, 2003
- Rubén Darío, puente hacia el siglo XXI y otros escritos/Carlos Tünnermann Bernheim, 2003
- Rubén Darío y su vigencia en el siglo XXI/Jorge Eduardo Arellano, 2003
- Paralelismo entre Rubén Darío y Salomón de la Selva/Nicolás Navas, 2002
- Bases para una interpretación de Rubén Darío/Mario Vargas LlosaMario Vargas LlosaJorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquis of Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian-Spanish writer, politician, journalist, essayist, and Nobel Prize laureate. Vargas Llosa is one of Latin America's most significant novelists and essayists, and one of the leading authors of his generation...
, 2001 - La angustia existencial en la poesía de Rubén Darío/Roque Ochoa Hidalgo, 2001
- Rubén Darío, addenda/José María Martínez Domingo, 2000
- Aproximación a Rubén Darío/Teodosio Muñoz Molina, 2000
- "Calibán: icono del '98. A propósito de un artículo de Rubén Darío", Revista Iberoamericana 184-185 (1998): 441-455 by Carlos Jáuregui
- "Rubén Darío y la búsqueda romántica de la unidad: El recurso modernista de la tradición esotérica"/Cathy Login Jrade, 1984
- Sus Mejores Poemas/Rubén Darío, 1929 (NOTE: freely, openly available with page images and full text from the Digital Library of the Caribbean here)
Sources
- Acereda, Alberto. "Modernism, Rubén Darío, and the Poetics of Despair".
- Orringer, Nelson R. (2002) "Introduction to Hispanic Modernisms", Bulletin of Spanish Studies LXXIX: 133-148.
- Ramos, Julio (2001) Divergent Modernities: Culture and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Latin America trans. John D. Blanco, Duke University Press, Durham, NC, ISBN 0-8223-1981-0
- Mapes, Edwin K.Erwin Kempton MapesErwin Kempton Mapes , was an American scholar of Spanish-American literature and Hispanist, renowned for his work on the Hispanic Modernists....
(1925) L'influence française dans l'oeuvre of Rubén Darío Paris, republished in 1966 by Comisión Nacional para la Celebración del Centenario del Nacimiento de Rubén Darío, Managua, Nicaragua OCLC 54179225 - Rivera-Rodas, Oscar (1989) "El discurso modernista y la dialéctica del erotismo y la castidad" Revista Iberoamericana 146-147: 45-62
- Rivera-Rodas, Oscar (2000) "'La crisis referencial' y la modernidad hispanoamericana" Hispania 83(4): 779-90
- Schulman, Iván A. (1969) "Reflexiones en torno a la definición del modernismo" In Schulman, Iván A. and Gonzalez, Manuel Pedro (1969) OCLC 304168 Martí, Darío y el modernismo Editorial Gredos, Madrid
- Ward, Thomas (1989) "El pensamiento religioso de Rubén Darío: Un estudio de Prosas profanas y Cantos de vida y esperanza" Revista Iberoamericana 55: 363-375.
- Ward, Thomas (2002) "Los posibles caminos de Nietzsche en el modernismo" Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica. 50(2): 489-515.
- Crow, John A. The Epic of Latin America. London England, University of California Press: 1992.
- Skidmore, Thomas E. & Smith, Peter H. Modern Latin America. New York, Oxford University Press: 2005.