Comment From The Sonnet Xv Of Garcilaso De La Vega

Comment from the Sonnet XV of Garcilaso de la Vega

Introduction

In this comment we will analyze the sonnet XV of Garcilaso de la Vega, one of the most famous authors of the Renaissance. Garcilaso is well known for having introduced the structure of the sonnet (two quartets and two thirds) in Spain. The poet took the Italian artist Petrarca, another pioneer of the Renaissance as an inspiration.

Developing

In this sonnet, the poet resorts to the myth of Orpheus to express his pain by not being reciprocated by his beloved and the desire she feels that she listens to her pleas. The theme of the poem is the feeling of pain of the poet, because it can be intuit the poem that believes that his pain is even greater than that of the Orpheus himself.

Being a sonnet, we find the typical structure of this: two quartets and two thirds. In the metric analysis we establish that they are endecasyllable verses, also of the sonnet. Thus, the metric scheme is as follows: ABBA ABBA CDE DEC, I feel all the major art verses.

The sonnet of Garcilaso is a great example of the poems of the Renaissance, since in this case the mythology is used as a representation of the spiritual state that the poet wants to communicate (the pain), very classic in the Renaissance. In the quartets, references are made to the Orpheus and Eurídice story: Orpheus, a musician, falls in love with the beautiful Eurídice, but soon married time he dies and the pain of his beloved extends through nature (the earth, theMontes, beasts also suffer).

This is what the poet refers in the verses from 1 to 6 (they faced the course of the rivers the trees moved with their song. Then Orpheus under hell to try to recover his wife (they went down to the kingdoms of fright). The gods decide.

But, the end of the myth does not make an appearance in Garcilaso’s poem, since the author is only interested in the moment of pain and suffering of Orpheus, to later compare him to him. This was a very classic act of the Renaissance: to use a mythological story as a basis and then compare the poet’s own pain with the story. In addition, in this particular case another of the most present issues in the Renaissance is also at stake: nature, which suffers as much as a Orpheus, thus producing a personification of the rivers, the earth, the trees, the beasts … during thequartets also highlight an anaphora of itself that structures the poem.

In the first third, the poet tries to ask his beloved because he is not able to soften his heart in order to love him (why will he not soften ..? A hardened heart), using a rhetorical interrogation. It also makes use of metonymy when referring to his beloved as hardened heart.

The second third acts as a conclusion and answer to the question launched in the first third. The poet believes that the pain he feels is greater than anyone has ever felt, even Orpheus and asks for clemency for himself. It refers to the fact that Orpheus was granted that clemency by letting him go down to hell, just by crying his wife and that the poet, who cries himself, is more worthy of that piety. This attempts to show the intensity of Garcilaso’s love.

conclusion

This sonnet is representative of the Renaissance not only for the issues (mythology, unrequited love, nature), but for the style: the expression of feelings is moderate, since it does not make any direct allusion on the subject, but it lets it glimpsein a subtle way, using as a basis the story of Orpheus and Eurídice.

Garcilaso uses a known story and a universal theme such as love to express his pain. De la Vega is a pioneer of the Renaissance in Spain and the introducer of the structure of the sonnet in Spain.