This renaissance is of barely twenty years' date. Certain forerunners--Marti and Julien del Casal, both Cubans, one a revolutionary in politics as in poetry, {261} the other a man of tragic life, and Gutierrez Najera in Mexico--revealed the new poetic speech to a continent weary of sentimentalism. New or unfamiliar rhythms and agile metres were the vehicle of a new and intimate lyrical passion. But the note was not as yet decadent: Banville and Gautier, and De Musset, even, had not yet given way to Verlaine, who was as unknown as Mallarmé. A Venezuelan critic, Pedro Emilio Coll, drew attention to the persistent cult among the "American decadents," of the great Theodore, and of the author of _Funambulesques_. In the _Azul_ of Ruben Dario he noted the influence of Mendès and Loti, even that of Daudet and the realists of his school, rather than the influence of symbolism.[13] By the vivacity and brilliance of his verse, Manuel Guttierrez Nájera reminds one of Banville. He sings in a new key, at once Creole and exotic, the complicated sensations which are presently to torment Ruben Dario. Spanish verse had never yet held such grace and spirit, nor this sensuality appeased by tears, nor this proud and reserved melancholy. _A Cecilia_, _Vidas Muertas_, _Castigadas_, _Mariposas_--these contained a new lyric poetry, elegiac and tender, an unknown rhythm, a forgotten manner. He was a forerunner. Who does not know his lines upon the spoiled child whom he loves? "No hay en el mundo mujer mas linda! Pié de Andaluza, boca de guinda, _Esprit_ rociado de Veuve Cliquot, Talle de avispa, cutis de ala, Ojos traviesos de colegiala, Como los ojos de Louise Théo."[14] {262} He is not always so frivolous. Mystery torments him; he knows the bitterness of vanished illusions; a pessimist, he has a vision of the moths of death "which have such black wings, and encircle us in a funereal round." The monologue of the unbeliever is a lament like that of Sigismond de Calderon upon the vanity of life:-- "Si es castigo ¿ cual pecado, Sin saberlo, cometimos? Si premio ¿ porque ganado? Sin haberlo demandado, Responded ¿ porqué vivimos?"[15] Poems and chronicles are filled with a like restlessness and trouble. He writes Odes worthy of an anthology; he translates De Musset and Coppee. His master is Gautier: he shares his love of the light; he sings, in love with ideal whiteness:-- "¿ Qué cosa más blanca que cándido lirio? ¿ Qué cosa más pura que místico cirio? ¿ Que cosa mas casta que tierno azahar?"[16]