Góngora y Argote, Luis de

Góngora y Argote, Luis de (lēs` dā gōn`gōrä ē ärgō`tā), 1561–1627, poet of the Spanish Golden Age, b. Cordova. Of a cultured family, he studied in Salamanca and became a prebendary (1585?) and later a priest (1617). In his youth he was carefree and pleasure loving. His early religious duties were largely diplomatic and took him through much of Spain. Later he spent two years at court and became involved in a controversy with young Quevedo, who lampooned him. Góngora, who has been called Spain's greatest poet, successfully wove Renaissance and popular poetry into an original and elegant form. A poet of great sophistication, wit, and culture, he expressed an extraordinary visual imagination. The countervailing qualities of irony and melancholy enhanced his work as well. His earlier poetry includes sonnets, at which he excelled, and ballads. His fame, however, rests primarily upon the great, complex, stylized works of his maturity; these include Panegyrico al duque de Lerma (1609), Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea (1613?), and the unfinished pastoral idyll, Las Soledades (1613), now considered his masterpiece. Góngora's style gave rise to the term Gongorism, signifying a baroque tendency in Spanish literature that is the equivalent of euphuism in England. Characteristic elements of his style include an innovative use of the metaphor, latinization of vocabulary, and classical and mythological allusion. The critical controversy over Las Soledades continued for three centuries. Although his collected works were not published until 1921, Góngora greatly influenced modern Spanish poetry.

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Góngora y Argote, Luis de 

Born July 11, 1561, in Córdoba; died there May 23, 1627. Spanish poet.

Góngora’s first poems were published around 1580, but the collection Verse Writings of the Spanish Homer did not appear until the year of his death. His poems were widely known in manuscript form. The usual division of his work into two periods (until 1610, the “bright” style; after 1610, the “dark” style) by Spanish literary scholarship is entirely relative; throughout his life he turned to both styles. He created many romances in the popular spirit and satirical verses with a clear message. The “dark” style is most clearly represented by the poems Polifemo (1612–13) and Solitudes (1613, unfinished), in which Góngora intentionally complicates the syntax and overloads the verses with mythological images, neologisms, complex metaphors, and periphrasis. These poems laid the foundations of Gongorism.

WORKS

Obras completas. Madrid, 1956.
In Russian translation:
“Ispanets iz Orana: Sonety.” In Khrestomatiia po zapadnoevropeiskoi literature: Literatura 17 v., 2nd ed. Compiled by B. I. Purishev. Moscow, 1949.

REFERENCES

Orozco Díaz, E. Góngora. Barcelona [1953].
Alonso, D. Estudios y ensayos gongorinos. Madrid [1955].
Alonso, D., and E. Galvarriato de Alonso. Para la biografia de Góngora; documentos desconocidos. Madrid [1962].
Oliver Belmas. A. Don Luis de Góngora y Argole: Su vida, sus mejores páginas, su época. Madrid, 1963.
Garcia Lorca, F. “’La imagen poética de don Luis de Góngora.” In his book Obras completas. Madrid, 1966. Pages 62–85.

Z. I. PLAVSKIN