The first reading we were assigned was Ruben Dario, who was considered the leading figure in the Spanish American Modernismo movement. Dario created a new standard for Spanish American literature by combining elements from both European and Latin American literature. I enjoyed reading all of his poems, but the ones that were my favorites were "Sonatina", "Blazon", and "Leda".
In "Sonatina", the princess feels sad and restless trapped in "the marble cage of the royal palace..." filled with all the finest things that money can buy. This shows that money can't buy a person happiness, and even the richest most sought after person is secretly unhappy with all the wealth they acquired. The poem reminds me of Disney fairy tales, such as Sleeping Beauty and Tangled, which is a more modern interpretation of the classic Rapunzel story. The one thing that puzzles me is towards the end, when the princess's fairy godmother showed up. That kind of showed me that it was starting to edge into fantasy territory. The godmother told her, "Hush, Princess, hush...the joyous knight who adores you unseen is riding this way on his winged horse...from far off, having conquered Death, to kindle your lips with a kiss of true love." which was a little off putting, instead of trying to resolve her predicament, the godmother was telling the princess to be quiet and tough it out until her prince charming arrives to save her.
The end of the poem felt a little disappointing to me, because I felt it was telling girls to be totally dependent on a guy to save them from difficult situations, and promising them that if they sat tight and waited long enough, they will be rescued by their prince charming. Maybe I'm being slightly feminist but telling girls to put all their hopes on the line just so a guy can make them happy is a little crazy and that's not how reality works.
"Blazon" and "Leda" was about the God of Mount Olympus, Zeus who takes the form of a swan and rapes Leda, a nymph who then gives birth to Helen of Troy. I really enjoyed reading about Greek mythology and I thought the way that Dario described Zeus in swan form was really majestic, and how Zeus was of "divine origin". He is described as being snow-white and pure, with a wing so white that it was almost "Eucharistic", Christ-like. "Blazon" focused on describing Zeus as swan form, but I really thought that the second poem "Leda" told more of the whole story, and that was more interesting to me. However, I did not really care for how the poem ended, with Pan, the sheep herd god of the woods accidentally witnessing the scene, it just further added to the trauma.
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