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Gustavo Adolfo Domínguez Bastida, better known as Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, (February 17, 1836 - December 22, 1870) 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 done earlier. He was associated with the post - romanticism movement and wrote while realism was enjoying success in Spain. He was moderately well known during his life, but it was after his death that most of his works were published. His best known works are the Rhymes and the Legends, usually published together as Rimas y leyendas. 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. Bécquer's influence on 20th century poets of the Spanish language can be felt in the works of Octavio Paz and Giannina Braschi. Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer was born in 1836 with the last name of Domínguez Bastida, but he chose his Flemish father's
second last name of Bécquer, as the family was known around
town. His father, José Domínguez Bécquer, who
descended from an originally Flemish family that was well respected in
Seville, was a painter of relatively good repute in his native town.
His paintings were sought after, particularly among tourists visiting
the area. José had a great talent, and this greatly influenced
young Gustavo, who showed a love for painting and an innate ability for
drawing and sketching at an early age. He was very talented, and
continued drawing throughout his life, though it was never his main
focus. Bécquer
was left an orphan at an early age: he lost his father at age 5, and
his mother only 6 years later. Young Gustavo began his education at San
Antonio Abad school, until he was admitted as a student of San Telmo
school in 1846, a nautical institution. It was at that school that he
met Narciso Campillo, with whom he developed a strong friendship. It
was also with Campillo that Bécquer began to show his literary
vocation, as the two boys started writing while sharing time at San
Telmo. A year later, the school was closed by royal order. Gustavo and
his siblings were then taken in by their uncle, Don Juan de Vargas, who
cared for the children as if they were his own. Shortly after, Gustavo
went on to live with his godmother Doña Manuela Monahay, whose
extensive library provided young Bécquer with endless hours of
entertainment, which doña Manuela allowed with pleasure. During
this period, Campillo remembers that the poet barely left his
godmother’s house, as he spent hours devouring the volumes of her
library. Gustavo’s godmother, a well educated person and also
well-to-do, supported his passion for the studies of arts and history.
However, she wished for Gustavo to have a profession, so in 1850 she
got him admitted as a pupil into the studio of Don Antonio Cabral
Bejarano, at the Santa Isabel de Hungría school. Gustavo worked
at the studio for only two years, when he moved to his uncle Joaquin’s
studio and continued developing his skills alongside his brother Valeriano,
who was already studying there. Gustavo and Valeriano became from this
point very close friends, and they both influenced each other greatly
throughout their lives. Luciano, another brother of the poet, also
studied with them during this period. The study of the arts of drawing
did not distract Gustavo from his passion for poetry; furthermore, his
uncle Joaquin paid for his Latin classes, which brought him closer to
his beloved Horace,
one of his earliest influences. Joaquin also noticed the great aptitude
of his nephew for words, and encouraged him to pursue writing as a
career, almost behind doña Manuela’s back, with whom Gustavo was
still living at the time. In
1853, at the age of seventeen, he moved to Madrid to follow his dream
of making a name for himself as a poet. Along with his friends Narciso
Campillo and Julio Nombela, both poets also, they had dreamed of moving
to Madrid together and selling their poetry for good money, though
reality proved to be quite different. Nombela was the first to leave for Madrid that
year, alongside his family. After long arguments over the trip with
doña Manuela, who resisted the idea, Bécquer finally left
for Madrid in October of that same year, alone and quite poor, except
for the little money that his uncle provided for him. The third friend,
Campillo, did not leave Seville until some time later. Life in Madrid
wasn’t easy for the poet. The dream of fortune that had guided his
steps towards the city were replaced by a reality of poverty and
disillusionment. The two friends were soon joined by Luis García
Luna, also a poet from Seville, who shared the same dreams of
greatness. The three began writing and trying to make themselves known
as authors, without much luck. Bécquer, the only one of the
three without a real job and a steady income, went on to live with an
acquaintance of Luna, doña Soledad. After
several failed commercial attempts with his friends, the writer finally
accepted a job as a writer for a small newspaper. This, however, didn’t
last long, and soon Gustavo was out of a job again. It was then that,
in 1855, Valeriano arrived in Madrid, and Gustavo went on to live with
his brother. They would never be apart after that. After
a few other unsuccessful attempts at publishing their work,
Bécquer and Luna began working together writing comic plays for
theater, as a means of making a living. This collaboration went on
until 1860. At that time, Bécquer worked intensively on his
belated project Historia de los templos de España (History
of Spain’s temples), the first volume of which saw the light of day in
1857. It was also during this period that he would meet the young Cuban
poet Rodríguez Correa, who would later play a major role in
collecting his works for posthumous publication. It was around this
time, between 1857 and 1858, that Bécquer became ill, and was
left to the care of his brother and friends. Shortly after, he met by
chance a girl by the name of Julia Espín, with whom he fell
deeply in love, and who also served as an inspiration for much of his
romantic poetry. This love, however, was unrequited. Around
1860, Rodríguez Correa found Bécquer a government
position, from where he was fired shortly after for spending his time
writing and drawing while on the job. In
1861, Bécquer met Casta Esteban Navarro, and married her in May
1861. Bécquer was believed to have had a romance with another
girl named Elisa Guillén shortly before the marriage, which is
also thought to be arranged (if not somewhat forced) by the parents of
the girl. The poet was not happy in the marriage, and took any chance
he got to follow his brother Valeriano on his constant trips. Casta
began to take up with a man with whom she had had a relationship
shortly before marrying Bécquer, something that was later blamed
on Bécquer’s trips and lack of attention by Casta’s
acquaintances. The poet wrote very little about Casta, as most of his
inspiration at this time (as it is the case with the famous rima LIII)
came from his feelings towards Elisa Guillén. Casta and Gustavo
had three children: Gregorio Gustavo Adolfo, Jorge, and Emilio Eusebio.
The third child was possibly fruit of the extramarital relations of
Casta. In 1865, Bécquer stopped writing for the magazine El Contemporáneo and began writing for another one called El museo universal. As it was customary for the poet, he didn’t hold this job for long, and was appointed to a government post, fiscal de novelas (censor of novels) by his friend, the Spanish minister González Bravo. This was a well paid job, which he held until 1868. During this period, the poet concentrated on finishing his Libro de los gorriones (Book
of the sparrows), so he did not publish a great deal of his works. The
book, which had been completed and given to Bravo to be published, as
he had offered so to Bécquer himself, was lost after the
political revolution of 1868. It was at this time that the poet left
Spain for Paris, although he returned not long after. By 1869, the poet
and his brother went back to Madrid together, along with Gustavo’s
sons. Here, he started re-writing the book that had gone missing the
year before. Gustavo was, by then, living a bohemian life, as his
friends later described. With the sole purpose of putting bread on the
table, Bécquer went back to writing for El museo universal, and then left to take the job of literary director of a new artistic magazine called La ilustración de Madrid.
Valeriano also collaborated with this project. Gustavo's publications
on this magazine consisted mostly of short texts to accompany his
brother’s illustrations. Around this time, between 1868 and 1869, the
two brothers published a book of satiric and erotic illustrations under
a pseudonym, which humorously critiqued the life of the royalty in
Spain, called Los Borbones en pelotas. In
1870, Valeriano fell ill and died on September 23. This had a terrible
impact on Gustavo, who suffered a serious depression as a result. After
publishing a few short works on the magazine, the poet also became
gravely ill and died in poverty in Madrid, on the 22nd of December,
almost three months after his beloved brother. The cause of death is
debated: while his friends described symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis, a later study indicates that he may have died of liver
complications. Some of his last words are said to be “Acordaos de mis
niños” (“remember - don’t forget - my children”.) After
his death, his friend Rodríguez Correa, with the collaboration
of Campillo, Nombela, and Augusto Ferrán, collected and
organized his manuscripts for publication, as a way to help the widow
and children of the poet. The first edition of their effort was
published in 1871, and a second volume was published 6 years later.
Further revisions came out on the editions released in 1881, 1885, and
1898. In such prose tales as El Rayo de Luna, El Beso, and La Rosa de Pasión,
Bécquer is manifestly influenced by E.T.A. Hoffmann, and as a
poet he has analogies with Heine. His work is unfinished and unequal,
but it is singularly free from the rhetoric characteristic of his
native Andalucía, and its lyrical ardor is of a beautiful
sweetness and sincerity. He also wrote in an epistolary style: Cartas desde mi Celda – written during his travels to Veruela's Monastery – or La Mujer de Piedra or little theatre plays La novia y el pantalón.
It is not so known he was an excellent graphic artist. Most of his work
concentrated on spontaneity of love and the solitude of nature. His
work, and in particular his Rimas, are considered some of the most
important work in Spanish poetry, greatly influencing the following
generations of writers, notably authors like Antonio Machado and Juan Ramón Jiménez, writers belonging to the Generation of '27, such as Federico García Lorca and Jorge Guillén, and many Hispano - American writers like Rubén Darío. Bécquer's
poems were recited from memory by his contemporaries, and greatly
influenced the generations afterwards. Modeled in brief stanza forms,
both musical and erotic, Bécquer's 98 Rimas came to a few
thousand lines, considered the foundation of modern Spanish poetry. His
book was composed after his death from many sources, the primary one
hand written by Bécquer himself, The sparrows' book.
Birds are a motif that shows up frequently in Bécquer's canon,
like in "Rima LIII" (Rhyme 53), where swallows appear as a sign of the
end to a passionate relationship. In English: The
refrain "¡Esas... no volverán!" appears in the 20th novel
"Yo-Yo Boing!" by Latina poet Giannina Braschi, who references
Bécquer's swallows to describe the sorrow and angst of a failed
romance. In Rhymes (Rhyme
21) Becquer wrote one of the most famous poems in the Spanish language.
The poem can be read as a response to a lover who asked what was poetry: A rough translation into English reads: |