Category Archives: Classics
Shakespeare’s sonnets
This week I took a rest from considering Novoneyra, the mountains and the countryside and gave myself up to Reading Shakespeare The sonnets start with a series in which the poet argues with a young man who is wasting his … Continue reading
Novoneyra and the Shepherd’s Calendar
Two poets look at a disappearing landscape, from distant points in time. Continue reading
Fuenteovejuna
Fuenteovejuna In this post I am looking at Fuenteovejuna a play by Lope de Vega, the Spanish Golden Age playwright who is best known outside of Spain. There are a number of urban legends concerning him. One says that he … Continue reading
Francisco de Rioja- Silva I
Silva I A painter who wanted to paint the figure of Apollo on a laurel wood panel. I wetted my brush with colour in vain to flesh out, O Phoebus, your figure on a laurel panel: Oh, the colours obey … Continue reading
Juan de Jaureguí- Dialogue Part II
ESCULTURA: Painting, you don’t convince me with all that talk of your greatness; as those men you are talking about will be dead in two days, them and their works. You can think of his fame as complete whose foundation … Continue reading
Juan de Jaureguí- Dialogue Between Nature and the Arts
Dialogue Between Nature and the Two Arts, Painting and Sculpture, to contest and judge which of the two should have preeminence. Dedicated to the practitioners and theorists of these arts. SCULPTURE: O, venerable mistress of the Arts, learned and able, … Continue reading
Curros Enríquez- The Virgin of the Crystal- Part IX
IX In the morning of the following day On the mountain of Soutoverde, On the crest above Vilanova, There was no space for more people. Everyone there was astonished, Children, men, women, And staring open-mouthed At a trembling something. On … Continue reading
Cespedes: Poem on Painting
I’ll start out here, Painter of the World. On the first and second days Right up to the last day of rest, From confused and shadowy chaos you brought A happy face to light from out of the deep; And … Continue reading
To Queen Isabel
Antón de Montoro – To Queen Isabel Oh, bitter, sad, old ragman, You don’t recognise your own pain! It is seventy years since you were born And every year you have proclaimed, “The Virgin was conceived without sin”; I never … Continue reading
Francisco Bances Candamo- Poesía Selecta (Gijón: Pexe, 2004)
Life in the Village Those who say that a man can live at peace Hidden away in a village, wanting Desiring and aiming for nothing, Where finely-dressed Envy has no lease, Let them come here for Experience to release Them … Continue reading
