Modern Spanish Lyrics
Modern Spanish Lyrics is an anthology assembled by editors E.C. Hills and S. Griswold Morley to give American students of Spanish a compact, classroom-ready selection of Castilian and Spanish-American verse. It gathers poems of genuine literary value, drawing lightly on the siglo de oro and more fully on the nineteenth century, whose language and thought lie closer to modern readers. Arranged chronologically by author—and, for the Spanish-American work, grouped by country—it ranges from anonymous romances through León, Quevedo, and Calderón to Espronceda, Bécquer, Zorrilla, and Rubén Darío, closing with popular songs and a supporting apparatus of introduction, notes, prosody, and vocabulary.
Its themes are the enduring concerns of lyric poetry: love, faith, patriotism, nature, exile, and loss. The collection matters because it treats Peninsular and American voices as a single living tradition, showing that poets of the New World bear comparison with the best of the mother country. As both a teaching text and a portrait of Hispanic lyric sensibility, it remains a graceful, accessible doorway into the music and feeling of Spanish verse.
How it begins
The present volume aims to furnish American students of Spanish with a convenient selection of the Castilian lyrics best adapted to class reading. It was the intention of the editors to include no poem which did not possess distinct literary value. On the other hand, some of the most famous Spanish lyrics do not seem apt to awaken the interest of the average student: it is for this reason that scholars will miss the names of certain eminent poets of the siglo de oro . The nineteenth century, hardly inferior in merit and nearer to present-day readers in thought and language, is much more fully represented. No apology is needed for the inclusion of poems by Spanish-American writers, for they will bear comparison both in style and thought with the best work from the mother Peninsula. The Spanish poems are presented chronologically, according to the dates of their authors. The Spanish-American poems are arranged according to countries and chronologically within those divisions. Omissions are indicated by rows of dots and are due in all cases to the necessity of bringing the material within the limits of a small volume. Three poems (the Fiesta de toros of Moratín, the Castellano leal of Rivas and the Leyenda of Zorrilla) are more narrative than lyric. The romances selected are the most lyrical of their kind.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain.