Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (February 17, 1836-December 22, 1870) was an Spanish poet and tale writer, one of the most important in Spanish literature, associated to the romanticism movement. He was moderately known during his life, but it was after his death that most of his works were published.

His most known works are the Rhymes and the Legends, usually published together. These poems and tales are essential to the study of Spanish literature and common reading for high-school students in Spanish-speaking countries .

His work approached the traditional poetry and themes in a modern way, and is considered the founder of modern Spanish lyricism .

Contents

1 Biography 2 Works 2.1 Rhymes 2.2 Legends 3 External links

Biography

Born in Seville, Bécquer was left an orphan at an early age. He was educated by his godmother, refused to adopt any profession, and drifted to Madrid, where he obtained a small post in the civil service. He was dismissed for carelessness, became an incorrigible Bohemian, and earned a precarious living by translating foreign novels; he died in great poverty in Madrid of tuberculosis at age 34. His works were published posthumously in 1873. In such prose tales as El Rayo de Luna and La Mujer de piedra, Bécquer is manifestly influenced by E.T.A. Hoffmann, and as a poet he has analogies with Heine. He dwells in a fairyland of his own, crooning a weird elfin music which has no parallel in Spanish; his work is unfinished and unequal, but it is singularly free from the rhetoric characteristic of his native Andalusia, and its lyrical ardour is of a beautiful sweetness and sincerity.

Works

Rhymes

This book was composed after his death from many sources, the primary one hand-written by Becquer himself, The sparrows' book.

In the Rhymes (Rhyme 21) he wrote one of the most famous poems in the Spanish language, answering a lady who asked what was poetry:

(...) What is poetry! And do you ask me?/Poetry... is you.

Legends

The Legends are a variety of romantic tales. As the name implies, most have a legendary tone. Some depict supernatural and semi-religious (christian) events, like The mount of the souls, The green eyes, The rose of the Passion and The miserere (a religious song). Others cover more or less normal events from a romantic view, like The moonlight ray and Three dates.

External links

Full works of Becquer, in Spanish

An annotated edition of Rhymes , in Spanish