ODA XXIII ANALYSIS: When leaving the prison of Fray Luis de León
When leaving jail
Here envy and lie
They had me locked up:
Happy the humble state
of the wise man who retires
of the evil world;
And with poor table and house
In the delightful field,
With only God it is compasses
And alone his life passes,
Neither envied nor envious.
Introduction
We are faced with a literary text, specifically a lyric genre poem, entitled "When leaving jail", Oda XXIII published by the author of the second phase of the Spanish Renaissance, Fray Luis de León. This was born in Belmonte, in a Judeoconversa family, that is, they changed their Jewish religion to the Christian. He attended his first studies in Madrid and Valladolid, until he moved to Salamanca.
The poetry "when leaving prison" belongs to the 16th century, and they say, was written on the walls of the cell in which Fray Luis was prisoner because of his university rivals, who denounced him before the Inquisition and where he left In 1576, when I was forty -eight years old, after four years have been in prison. It is, therefore, a work that reflects the desire for evasion and liberation, whose main theme is the preference for pure and lonely life, in front of a society subject to slavery and lies.
At the time of its composition, it is worth highlighting the influence of Garcilaso, in addition to the sense of harmony and abigarming of the first Spanish rebirth, before the falling towards the "excesses" of Herrera, the announcement of the Baroque. In addition, the Renaissance was a stage of revolution in terms of the previous era, the medieval age, since it meant the rebirth of classical antiquity (hence the name of the movement), the progress of science and religion, the value of the artist As a creator, valuing his work with money, fame and success, vitalism … a whole time overturned in the past, although society, especially the Spanish, was full of contradictions.
At the time of the author’s life in which he was written, he reflects the maturity of a man who has unfairly suffered and the bitter experience of who has been in prison for no reason. They contrast these circumstances with the hope and serenity that we discover in the author’s first creations. But it also reflects its vehement, humble but claiming character.
There is no lack of the favorite issue of the theologian, astronomer, poet, humanist, professor, translator and Spanish religious; "Beatus ille". The great literary topic of the moment, ideal that he did not fulfill in his life because he did not turn away from the fight. It is complemented with another frequent in Fray Luis: to be considered banished because his aspiration is set in God as a intellectual and affective goal of a life, which on land is only pain and anguish.
For the brevity of the poem, the pointed reasons are expressed with great strength, tension and concentration. The poetic composition that we discuss, by its kind is full of subjectivity, intimidism and manifestation of feelings, which want to be transmitted in the same way to the reader. There is a clear domain of the affective to the rational and objective.
As for the structure of the ode, it presents a stanza composed of ten octosyllable verses, of minor art and consonant rhyme "abbab, cdccd", combination of rhyme hugged and chained. The structure of its content can be divided into two main nuclei:
1. The objective exhibition of the stay in jail, shown in the first two verses.
two. Exaltation of the life away from the world, poor and that only adjusts to God (the remaining verses of the composition).
The author’s attitude, according to what we have already seen, is internal – intimate, and his position, subjective. As for the point of view, let’s point out that the author appears and participates in the action of the text as corresponds to the lyric.
It begins in the first narrative person (me) and passes, after the first two verses, to the third person, but that is nothing but a generalizing prolongation of the first person about him (3.ª Person) The poet’s desires (his of him).
The author’s disposition in the transmission is realistic as he objective something real for his privacy. Consciously and subconsciously, Fray Luis is involved in this text with his hobbies and repulses and discovers that contradictory character referred to above. It is the emotional character of man who, in the face.
Developing
Phonetic features
We highlight in the phonetic plane, verses 6.º, 8.º and 9.º For its insistence of the sordi -alveolar son. Where is the clearest is in verse 9.º
There are sinalefas in verses 1.º, 3.º, 5.º, 6.º, 9.º and 10.º.
Rhythmic Estrophic and Axis accent is 7.ª Syllabus in all verses and, therefore, the rhythm of intensity is trocaic. All the verses that we find with the last accentuated syllable are paroxytones.
Verses 1.º, 5.º and 8.º They are accentuated in the syllables: 2.ª, 4.ª and 7.ª And therefore, they have two extra-rhythmic accents in second and fourth. They are mixed octosyllable. It should be included within these metric characteristics pointed out verse 4.º With accents in syllables 2.ª and 7.ª.
Verses 2.º, 7.º and 10.º They are accentuated in syllables 3.ª and 7.ª; They have, therefore, a rhythmic accent in the third.
Verses 3.º and 9.º They are accentuated in the syllables: 2.ª, 5.ª and 7.ª; They have a rhythmic accent in the fifth syllable and extra-rhythmic in the second.
Verse 6.º is accentuated in 3.ª, 5.ª and 7.ª; It has two rhythmic accents in third and fifth syllable. It is a trocaic octosyllable formed by two trocaus, it has two syllables in anacrusis and two links. The predominance of the trocaic rhythm with a descending cadence is evident.
Therefore, the domain of trocaic rhythms, a cadent and uneven rhythm in this poetry can be seen in this poetry. Dactile also appear that at the same time add variety and underline the sensation of balance and serenity.
There are version pauses and the obligatory strophic pause. We can distinguish an abrupt and soft synthetic mouth between verses 3 and 4, 4 and 5.
There is a descending tone at the end of verses 2.º, 5.º, 8.º and 10.º, which achieves a balanced distribution of tensions and suspensions that characterize these verses.
It is an isometric stanza, called false tenth (better than double quintilla). It must be said that even the tenth spinel (from 1591) the stanzas of ten verses will not be regularized; There was a great variety of this type of combinations.
Morphosyntactic features
The first thing that characterizes the work is an adverb of demonstrative place "here", placed by hyperbaton, and that only has a function and possibility of determination in a context that specifies it or in the real conversation. In this case, it is explained by the possibility of written the work with charcoal on the walls of the cell in which it was locked. And although the reader is not present in the place to read it, the fact of not changing it for a distance such as "there", it provides emotional tension and drama. Therefore, the adverb "here" has a spatial proximity deictic function.
The suppression of the article determined before "lie" produces a greater union and cohesion between the two coordinated nouns (envy and lie) that form, as well as a conceptual unit that supports the verb "locked" of the next verse. In addition, we note the absence of adjectives in the first two verses of the poem, in the face of frequent use of these in the second part of the text (verse 3 and following), marking their change of state.
The periphrasis has + participle (they had locked up) has a durating value in the past and this duration is emotionally present by the adjective here, previously commented.
In the third verse the preparation of the "humble" adjective underlines the concept of humility and adds subjectivism. In addition, in the sixth verse we find the poor adjective too before, which qualifies to table and house and keeps a close conceptual relationship with "humble" in the third verse. The absence of article before Mesa and Casa gives an essential value to these nouns, against the existential character that involves the presence of the article.
It is important to highlight the light hyperbaton of the eighth verse, which has the function of highlighting that God and only God is the goal of man in the delightful field.
It coincides with the use of hyperbaton the use of the verb "compass" that enhances the perfect adequacy sense.
The syntactic structure of the entire composition is very simple: an enunciative sentence, a copulative and two copulative coordinates. But we must point out the presence of a moderate hyperbaton in coordinated sentences (verses 5.º – 10.º) that highlights the main elements and highlights the fundamental meanings. In this we find what makes this poetry beautiful, the charm of the Renaissance, Asymmetry and Bosura.
Lexical features
Fray Luis de León uses a daily and common lexicon. He has not chosen "literary" words and with previous connotations, but this does not mean that he does not select meticulously before composing. Fray Luis himself reminds us in the prologue "of the names of Christ", the need to choose, weigh, measure the words, so that they transmit the message clearly, in addition to softness and musicality.
Two blocks of different meanings can be established in this text. The first would be the negative valuation (envy, lie, locked up, evil world, envied, envious) and the second the positive valuation (happy, humble, wise concrete and words of abstract meaning. In this feeling we must point out the value of the synecdoque of the first verse: Fray Luis avoids customizing or specifying (specific people or the "envious" and "liars") mentioning the abstract for the concrete (envy and lie). He contrasts this noble attitude to name the abstract for the concrete with the reverse activity of verse 6.º In which poor table actually equals poor life.
The text in society
Fray Luis de León did not write poetry with the immediate intention of publishing it, but to express his interior experiences, as a kind of intimate confession. Fray Luis de León, although it seems that there was some attempt, he did not publish his poetry in life, perhaps because of the frivolous character he had to attribute to his poetry in the face of his translations and "scientific" translations, and for the privacy of some of some of Your compositions. For these reasons, poetry did not circulate printed and few must have access to it. Probably a small number of initiates or apprentices, who shared with Fray Luis the rejection of inquisitorial rigor and the desire for intellectual freedom. But it is not expressed here in the form of rebellion and direct attack but in the form of flight, perhaps another attitude was not possible.
There are hardly any data that accurately tell how many people this poem managed to arrive at the time. But, at least we can highlight that it circulated between friars as the parodic gloss that Dominico Domingo de Guzmán shows us. In defense of Fray Luis de León, a brother of the Order, Fray Alfonso de Mendoza wrote another composition. These testimonies of the rivalry of Dominicans and Augustinians, from which his work must also be explained, although that affects his scientific production as a professor at the University of Salamanca.
conclusion
We cannot deny that, "when leaving jail" is a poem with much to offer. Although it reflects a deep and sad feeling, its realization is elegant, and manages to convey feelings that, luckily or unfortunately, all human beings experience in some bad stage of our life. The affliction and sorrow that shows by the unfair treatment that has been given to him, the result of envy and cruelty, and shaping all this with an exceptional domain of language, puts us in his skin at every moment. Reading this poem makes you consider an internal personal reflection, it is simply magnificent. In my opinion this is one of those works that reach you to the heart, you share their ideas, and that despair for living free.
Bibliography
- San José Lera, Javier: «Biography of Fray Luis de León», Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library, http: // www.Cervantes Virtual.com/Portales/Fray_luis_de_leon/Author_Apunnte/
- San José Lera, Javier: «Chronology of Fray Luis de León», Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library, http: // www.Cervantes Virtual.com/Portales/Fray_luis_de_leon/Author_Cronologia/
- Sánchez, Fran: «The Renaissance lyric», Slideshare, February 4, 2014, https: // es.Slideshare.Net/Franschez2/la-Lirica-Rentista
- «Luis de León», Wikipedia, May 25, 2020, https: // es.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_de_león
- Camero, Patricia (2020): «What you didn’t know about Fray Luis de León», Hospitality Salamanca, February 26, https: // www.Hosteleriasalanca.es/news-jeria/February-2020/lo-who-not-sabias-from-spray-luis-de-leon.PHP
- http: // www.Cervantes Virtual.com/Portales/Fray_luis_de_leon/Author_Apunnte/
- http: // www.Cervantes Virtual.com/Portales/Fray_luis_de_leon/Author_Cronologia/
- https: // is.Slideshare.Net/Franschez2/la-Lirica-Rentista
- https: // is.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_de_león
- https: // www.Hosteleriasalanca.es/news-jeria/February-2020/lo-who-not-sabias-from-spray-luis-de-leon.PHP
- https: // www.Hosteleriasalanca.es/news-jeria/February-2020/lo-who-not-sabias-from-spray-luis-de-leon.PHP
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