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Félix Rubén García Sarmiento (January 18, 1867 – February 6, 1916) was a Nicaraguan poet who wrote under the pseudonym of Rubén Darío. Darío was born in Metapa, Nicaragua. His childhood was filled with difficult economic and personal situations, but his writing abilities allowed him to publish at a very young age. Darío displayed much talent from an early age, which in 1882 earned him an appearance before President Joaquín Zavala.
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Childhood Life
Rubén Darío did not have a very pleasant childhood. His parents separated after his birth, and was raised by his grandparents' siblings. He felt the abandonment from his parents from a very early age. During his lifetime Rubén Darío only met his mother on two occasions and very briefly. He viewed his father like one of his uncles.
Rubén Darío was born with a thirst for expanding his horizons far beyond his immediate and beloved Nicaragua. He wanted to explore the rest of Latin America and the world. Unfortunately, his economic circumstances did not allow for this to happen during his childhood.
Meeting el Presidente
The fifteen year old Darío is believed to have asked the President for permission to go study in Europe. But Darío had asked this after having presented a poem speaking against his homeland and its religion. After hearing his request, Presidente Zavala gave Darío a unique response: "My son, if you so write against the religion of your fathers and their homeland now, what will become of you if you go to Europe and learn worse things?" Because of this he didn't go to Europe.
Later Years
Later he would marry Rosario Murillo and they would move to El Salvador where he met Francisco Gavidia. It was Gavidia who introduced him to Castilian poetry.
Before leaving he worked in the National Library of Nicaragua. He later traveled to Chile.
It was in Chile where Darío consolidated the literary styles found in Europe.
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Father of Modernism
In 1883, he returned to Nicaragua. Rubén Darío had many works in his life, but the one thing that is most is important is that he is considered the father of Modernism (modernismo). Others call him "El Principe de las Letras Castellanas."
Rubén Darío participated in, or was the leader of, many literary movements in Chile, Spain, Argentina and Nicaragua. The modernist movement was a recapitulation of three movements in Europe: Romanticism (romanticismo), Symbolism (símbolismo) and parnasianismo. These ideas express passion, visual art, and harmonies and rhythms with music.
Darío was a genius of this movement. His style was exotic and very vibrant. In his poem Canción de Otoño en Primavera (The Song of Fall in Spring) there is much evidence of passion and strong emotions. Soon many literary writers would start using his style in a cautious and elegant form, using his style and his words to make music with poetry.
His fundamental collection, Azul ("Blue"), was published in 1888 and established his reputation as one of the most important Spanish-language exponents of Modernism. Many critics consider his death in 1916 to mark the symbolic end of Modernism.
Darío marks an important shift in the relationship between literary Europe and Hispanic America. Before him, Latin American literary trends had largely followed European trends; however, Darío was clearly in the international vangard of the modernist movement.
His poetry brought back vigor to the stale, monotonous poetry of the time.
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Quote
- "My pick is working deep in the soil of this unknown America, turning out gold and opals and precious stones, an altar, a broken statue. And the Muse divines the meaning of the hieroglyphics. The strange life of a vanished people emerges from the mist of time." —Rubén Darío
- "Si pequeña es la patria, uno grande la sueña."
- "If small is one's country, great ones dream it." —Rubén Daríode:Rubén Darío
Sample Poetry
YO PERSIGO UNA FORMA
Yo persigo una forma que no encuentra mi estilo,
botón de pensamiento que busca ser la rosa;
se anuncia con un beso que en mis labios se posa
al abrazo imposible de la Venus de Milo.
Adornan verdes palmas el blanco peristilo;
los astros me han predicho la visión de la Diosa;
y en mi alma reposa la luz como reposa
el ave de la luna sobre un lago tranquilo.
Y no hallo sino la palabra que huye,
la iniciación melódica que de la flauta fluye
y la barca del sueño que en el espacio boga;
y bajo la ventana de mi Bella Durmiente,
el sollozo contínuo del chorro de la fuente
y el cuello del gran cisne blanco que me interroga.