Valencia, Guillermo

Valencia, Guillermo (gēyār`mō välān`syä), 1873–1943, Colombian poet, one of the leaders of modernismo. He came from an aristocratic family, received solid classical training, and became active politically as an orator. Valencia was a disciple of José Asunción Silva. His austere and subtle verses display his considerable culture and extreme sensibility. The only collections of his work published in his lifetime are Ritos [rites] (1898) and Catay (1928). Valencia was constantly preoccupied with the fate of the poet in an indifferent world.