Novohispanic Baroque Poetry

Abstract

AbstractUnlike romantic or modern poetry, Baroque poetry is not a soliloquy of unhappiness or suffering, but rather a civic conversation, a dialogue between the inner self and the external world. Its scrolls and flourishes do not conceal truth, but instead reveals it about the poet, humanity, and the world itself. If we manage to unravel the very rational network of analogies and interconnections presented by the poet, we can witness an epiphany of how a slice of history, and of reality, is placed before our eyes. In this poetry, the poet objectifies the world: New Spain of the 17th century with its anecdotes, ideas, joys, and pains; a moment, a gesture, a banal detail that takes on dramatic significance thanks to the Baroque nature of poetic texts. In the opinion of Giovanni Getto, the great scholar of the Italian Baroque, Baroque poetry is the poetry of things not meant to last. Indeed, Baroque poetry is the poetry of fleeting moments.