Modernismo
Modernismo was a Spanish-American literary movement. Modernismo began in Latin America in the late 1800s and spread to Spain in the first decades of the twentieth century. Its greatest influences were French symbolism and the Parnassian school of poets, elements of classical Spanish poetry, and the influence of American poets. Poets of this movement often set their poems in landscapes with swans, peacocks, lilies, princesses, and other symbols of beauty. Although these symbols may have seemed innocent and sweet they were meant to emphasize the materialism and ignorance of everyday life by creating a world of absolute impure beauty. Although the movement itself was over by 1920, it continued to influence Spanish and Latin American poets throughout the rest of the twentieth century.
Rubén Darío, also known as ‘The Father of Modernism’, was born in the little town of Metapa on January 18th, 1867. His real name was Felix Rubén García Sarmiento. The name Dario was adopted from a great grandfather who was well known as Darío. Ruben Dario was very smart since the beginning of hs childhood. His favorite books considered complicated for children. At the age of 13, he made his first verse publication in a newspaper of the city of Rivas named Termómetro. Since then, he was known in his nation, Nicaragua, and in the other four Republics of Central America as the ‘child poet’.
Poem: Fatality
By: Rubén Darío
http://markandrewholmes.com/fatality-dario.html
Poem Summary: The poem 'Fatality' by Ruben Dario is about the disapointment and fearful life we live. He says the tree is happy because it is barely conscious and the rock is even happier because it isn't at all. The rock does not have to deal with living off someone or something or worry about dying or weakening because it is unknowing and without the need to breath unlike the tree which must flourish by the use of water, soil, and oxygen. Dario may seem in this poem as a depressed man as wishing not to be alive but really everything he speaks is the truth. For almost everyone in the world, they have worries about death and their safety and protection. Dario is saying how it is stressful to be alive and to have to work for yourself to survive. He tells about the temptations of life and how we may end up dead because of certain decisions we make.
Literary Elements
The poem 'Fatality' is short but has a few literary elements used to bring this poem to life. Which is what this poem is about. There is personification in the first lines, "the tree is happy", and "the hard rock is happier". This is portraying that these objects have feelings and a knowing of themselves. There is also irony and somewhat of a paradox in this poem. "There is no pain greater than being alive, no burden heavier than that of conscious life." This quote from the poem in my opinion is irony because life some say is a beautiful thing and you would thin that someone would enjoys having life and being alive but Dario describes life as painful and a burden. Also I feel this can also be a paradox because in the beginning the tree of course is a living thing even though it can not talk or walk as a human it is still alive but happy. This statement in a way is contradictive to the previous. This quote says that life is all full of pain and a heavy burden yet there is happiness in others. Also the statement still has truth because some do veiw life as a rugged unpleasant duration of existenc until death. It's all a matter of opinion but it has truth.