In preparation for the Comprehensive exam I have decided to focus on the topic of 20th Century political poetry from Latin America. This is a topic that has long been of interest to me. The first Latin American writer of any genre I read was Pablo Neruda, a poet was not only actively involved in the fields of diplomacy and politics -first as a consul then later as a senator representing the Chilean Communist party- but also who vented his passionate involvement in the process of history into an intensely lyrical style of verse. The relationship between poetics and politics in Latin America is complex and fascinating because in many ways the historical process in Latin America is powered by lyricism: by mythic and affective ideas of nationalism and the formation, structuring and evolution of society. As in the aforementioned case of Neruda and also in the case of José Martí, whose book Versos sencillos is the first and earliest text on the list, many poets find themselves at the heart of their countries’ political processes as active figures involved in events, not merely passive figures who accidentally absorb something of the greater world as they grind out their private reflections. The relationship between poets as political figures, poetry as a political act (primarily in the form of protest poems or testimonial poems) and the larger function of the lyrical within the schematic structure of ideology is what interests me.
As previously mentioned the first text on my list is Versos sencillos by José Martí. Versos sencillos is one of his most well known works. The text consists of 46 short poems written in the octosílabo or eight-syllable style of meter which translator Anne Fountain describes as a format that has “long served as an expression of popular poetry in Spanish”. Fountain also notes the language of the author as being both lyrical and direct, hence the “sencillo” of the title. Martí, in his prologue defends the publication of these “simple” verses in preference to the “endecasílabos hirsutos” of his Versos libres, or the more intensely political work Versos cubanos (both works eventually published posthumously) as motivated by an appreciation for simple direct language and sentimental expression.
The poets’ intimate emotional experiences provide the impetus for the poems, but these emotions are in no way isolated from the realm of the political. In Martí’s work love, consolation, loss and desolation occur in his relationships with women, his relationship with writing and his relationship with Cuba and America as a whole. The beloved-as-woman and the beloved-as-nation, are two-faced figures which elate the poet at the same time as they make him suffer. This double-nature is best expressed in poem XX:
Mi amor del aire se azora;
Eva es rubia, falsa es Eva
Viene una nube, y se lleva
Mi amor que gime y que llora.
Se lleva mi amor que llora
Esa nube que se va:
Eva me ha sido traidora:
Eva me consolará!
While the image of the female beloved as two-faced is a common trope of poetry which harkens way back to the Provenzal tradition, Martí also applies this to his concept of nation: Cuba is the land that inspires in him great love and longing, a longing expressed in lyrical evocations of the landscape, the flag and the struggle for freedom, yet at the same time it also betrays him by allowing slavery. Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of Martí’s various love relationships is the fact that the only one which seems to be concrete and enduring is his love of poetry. Poetry is given an almost salvific role in Martí’s work…as a love which not only endures, but actually transmutes suffering into joy in almost a religious sense:
XXXV
¿Qué importa que tu puñal
Se me clave en el riñón?
Tengo mis versos, que son
Más fuertes que tu puñal!
¿Qué importa que este dolor
Seque el mar, y nuble el cielo?
El verso, dulce consuelo,
Nace alado del dolor.
It’s interesting to see how the poetry-as-beloved transcends the other relationships in the text almost to the point that it becomes the very force that organizes them. In religious terms, poetry plays the role of the mystic’s ”Presloin” or Divine Beloved who galvanizes all of his yearnings, desires and ecstasies, who consoles him in his misery and whose presence is both contradictorially fleeting and constant. This would explain why the very first poem opens the collection with an evocation of the poet as a poet, as a man who loves the world, travels and sings about what he sees.
“in many ways the historical process in Latin America is powered by lyricism: by mythic and affective ideas of nationalism and the formation, structuring and evolution of society.”
This is an interesting idea, but at some point you’ll have to define what you mean by “lyricism,” and how it relates to the “mythic” and the “affective.”
“The relationship between poets as political figures, poetry as a political act (primarily in the form of protest poems or testimonial poems) and the larger function of the lyrical within the schematic structure of ideology is what interests me.”
This is nice and clear. (And a good basis for a grant proposal…)
NB it might be good from now on to separate out posts that deal with your project in general with those that deal with the specific texts. (Obviously, however, the two will bleed into each other somewhat.) This would leave you more space both to offer something like a close reading of the poetry, and to sketch out some ideas as to how the various books fit together, and what elements you will wish to focus on in the future.
I will be travelling to Cuba on Saturday on a humanitarian mission. I will be meeting at a formal dinner with some of our Cuban friends and I would like to offer to recite a short excerpt of a Jose Marti poem for them (in Spanish). I didn’t want to do Guantanamera, as it is so well known. Can you recommend or provide an excerpt of another poem that is written about Cuba (or related)? I would be in your debt.