Poets, Spanish; Spanish poetry -- History and criticism; Spanish poetry -- Translations into English
Beyond the ‘History of Perez del Pulgar,’ Martinez de la Rosa has
written several other works in prose, one of which, the latest,
entitled ‘Spirit of the Age,’ is in fact, so far as yet published,
a History of the French Revolution, preceded by a few general
observations on political questions. It has already advanced to
six volumes, and becoming a political and philosophical history of
contemporaneous events, may be extended to the utmost limits. A novel
which he wrote earlier in life, ‘Donna de Solis,’ is acknowledged
a failure, as showing “that no man, however eminent, can write
successfully on all kinds of subjects.”
The principal literary success which Martinez de la Rosa has had,
seems to have been as a dramatist; but into those works it would be
impossible to enter, to treat them with justice, except by making them
a prominent subject of consideration. His poems, published as before
stated in 1833, contain compositions in various styles, from the light
Anacreontic to the project of an Epic Poem on the Wars of Granada, of
which, however, he has only published fragments. Besides a translation
of Horace’s ‘Art of Poetry,’ he has also given the world an ‘Ars
Poetica,’ for the benefit of his own countrymen, which he has enriched
with many excellent notes and criticisms.
Some of the rules laid down in this ‘Ars Poetica’ are well worthy of
study, as giving room for reflection, for carrying their suggestions
even further than he has done. Thus, while insisting on the young
poet depending on the excellency of his ear for the melody of verse,
instead of having to count the syllables for the requisite purpose,
he observes, that as the ancients regulated their metres by time,
making so many long or short feet of equivalent measure, of which the
judgement must depend on the cadence, so in the verses of the best
Spanish poets, there are often some lines containing three or four
more syllables than others, to which they form the counterpart, and
which are read in the same measure, with increased pleasure for the
variation.
The same observation may apply to English verse, though perhaps not so
fully. Many of our syllables containing shortly sounded vowels, such
as a Hebrew scholar might call Sheva and its compounds, pronounced
distinctly, but two in the time of an ordinary syllable, may be found
to give an elegance to the line, which would sound faulty with only
one of them. But we may go further, and observe, that as in music the
melody may be continued by the pause, instead of a note in the bar,
so in a line, a pause with one or more long syllables may have the
effect of a syllable, instead of the sound or foot to make up the
measure. Readers of poetry will not require to be reminded of instances
of this adaptation of sounds, and if they notice any such lines in
these translations, they will perceive that they have been written in
accordance with the precepts referred to.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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