Rubén Darío changed the whole course of Spanish poetry, by converting it to "modernism" and by halting what he called "the mummification of Spanish rhythms." Exotic, erratic, revolutionary, he was a major poet by any standards. This translation, by a man who is himself a poet, brings to English readers the whole range of Darío's verse—from the stinging little poems of Thistles to the dark, tired lines written at the end of his life.
Rubén Darío changed the whole course of Spanish poetry, by converting it to "modernism" and by halting what he called "the mummification of Spanish rhythms." Exotic, erratic, revolutionary, he was a major poet by any standards. This translation, by a man who is himself a poet, brings to English readers the whole range of Darío's verse—from the stinging little poems of Thistles to the dark, tired lines written at the end of his life.