Sonnet Iv Of Gracilaso De La Vega

Sonnet IV of Gracilaso de la Vega

We are facing a text written in verse, more specifically a sonnet. The poem is composed of a total of 14 verses, two stanzas of four verses each or quartets and two of three verses or third. Taking into account that the poem is a sonnet and that in this subject we have studied Garcilaso, the "master of the sonnets", is probably the author of this. The verses are endecasyllables, with consonant rhyme. The rhyme presented by the poem is as follows: Abba Abba Cde CDE.

The poem is an introspection of the self, where the author tells us how he is in the two quartet, to one of struggle and hope and to get out of this situation.

Throughout the poem we can find different literary figures such as the following: In verses 1 and 3 the opposition of the verbs "lift" and "fall", this literary resource is called antithesis. In verses 9 and 10 ("I will take by force of arms/ break a mountain, that another does not break") we can see an alliteration where the sound is repeated/ r/. In verse 14 we find a redundancy to write the author "man in flesh and blood", that is a pleonasm.

On the other hand, the first complete third is a hyperbole, because it tells us that the author will break a mountain with his arms creating an exaggeration, because no human being can do something like that. It is just in this third where we can appreciate that between the author and his beloved there are difficulties that prevent the joy of his love.

Also, we also find the use of rhetorical interrogations such as verses 5 and 6, “who will suffer so rough move/ from good to evil?". The exclamation of verse 6 (“Oh, tired heart!”) It is quite curious because the author addresses an interlocutor in this case the heart, that is to say a apostrophe, and at the same time it personifies the heart saying that he is tired. On the other hand, this same exclamation could interpret it as a synecdoque, that is, a part for the whole, in this case the heart would be the representation of its love feelings.

As we have observed, with the use of these rhetorical figures the author declares us, in my opinion with force and determination, his clear intention to go to his beloved, by which he professes a great love.

If we now look at the language used by the author we can see that he oozes elegance. The chosen language is simple, that is, it has no cultisms or extremely cultured language that makes its understanding difficult. With the simplicity of language, in my opinion, it balances the complexity that rhetorical figures can cause.

In conclusion, the poem is typical of Renaissance poetry because it presents the characteristics of the moment, such as the use of petrarchist forms such as sonnet, the use of endecasyllable and the use of a careful lexicon. Also, in the poem we see that Neoplatonic love, practically impossible among lovers, that oscillation between the hope and hopelessness of Garcilaso. Thus, the poem is lovely and invites you to have hope and fight for love.