Subjects:
Shelley´s “A Summer Evening Churchyard”, Gray´s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” and “En un cementerio de lugar castellano” by Unamuno
Death, as the greatest human truth, is and an excellent topic in poetry, beholded sometimes as a fearful hour, sometimes as the definitive peace. There is a calidoscopic view of these three authors about death and the place where it dwells; the prerromanticism of Gray, the full romanticism of Shelley and the anguish of life of Unamuno.
Shelley stresses the idea of peace and rest that Death provides. As a romantic he makes of Death a magical thing, one more step in the circle of life. Nature plays a very important role; Summer comes before Atumn as Twilight comes before death. Death is the last of the mysteries, the last of the dreams. The whole poem is deeply evocative
“They breathe their spells towards the departing day
Encompassing the earth, air, stars and sea
.../Responding to the charm with its own mistery” (L. 7-10)
Death receives several names; Twilight (5), Obscurest Glen (6) departing day (7) etc. Life is a dream or just an illusion for many authors like Calderón or Plato (very important for romantics),
. . .
“¿Será verdad que cuando toca el sueño / con sus dedos de rosa nuestros ojos / de la cárcel que habita huye el espíritu / en vuelo presuroso
/ ¿será verdad que huésped de las nieblas, / de la brisa nocturna al tenue soplo, / alado sube a la región vacía / a encontrarse con otros?
/ ¿Y allí los desnudo de la humana forma, / allí los lazos terrenales rotos, / breves horas habita de la idea / el mundo silencioso? (. 94)
These are some the many depictions of death in Unamuno´s poetry (counted by hundreds), but “En un cementrio” is widely recognized by critics as one of his most important because gathers the two axis of Unamuno´s work; the religious crisis and the Spanish landscape.
Unamuno´s point of view about death has less of a myth and more of scathological in both sides of the word (adj. The metrics is similar in lenght and rhyme to English ballads or Spanish romances stanzas, but without blank verses; ‘abab’. Actually I´ve seen both kinds of burial in Castilla, but the second type no longer exists. 61)
Inexorable;
“¡Tú también morirás, morirá todo,
y en silencio infinito
dormirá para siempre la esperanza!”
(Para después de mi muerte, Poesías p. 1-12)
This oniric vision of life and death is shared by all romantics and most of the poets. There is an important difference between the English graveyard and the Spanish one.
Essay's Topics
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