"Rubén Darío" _ Nicaraguan Poet
Rubén Darío - Poeta
Félix Rubén García Sarmiento (January 18, 1867 – February 6, 1916), known as Rubén Darío (Spanish pronunciation: [ruˈβen daˈɾi.o]), was a Nicaraguan 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 CastilianLetters" and undisputed father of the modernismo literary movement.
Poem penned for 'Theodore Roosevelt' , then U.S. President;
before he shocked his peers & changed some of his political attitude..
"A Roosevelt" by Rubén Darío 1905
Eres los Estados Unidos,
eres el futuro invasor
de la América ingenua que tiene sangre indígena,
que aún reza a Jesucristo y aún habla en español.
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You are the United States
you are the future invader
of the naive America that has indigenous blood
that still prays to Jesus Christ and that still speaks Spanish.
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Assessment ;
Roberto González Echevarría considers him the beginning of the modern era in Spanish language 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 had infused Castilian verse with Italianate forms and spirit in the 16th century, transforming it forever.Darío led one of the most profound poetic revolutions in Spanish according to Latin American poets Octavio Paz, who wrote a prologue to a translation of Darío's selected poems, and Giannina Braschi, who features Darío as a character in her works.
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 romantic.
