Poetas y poesías:

Some possible memory tricks for associating the poems and authors

Here are some suggestions for ways to the poets with their poems. These tricks may be utterly silly (or may not even make much sense to you).  They are offered to you as samples of how you can make associations so that you can better remember the material.

1. La Edad Media
   1. Anónimo:
      • “El enamorado y la Muerte” («Un sueño soñaba anoche»)
        --The two main characters are the Enamorado and Muerte, E-M for the Edad Media; the main character (Enamorado) has got to be dreaming (soñando un sueño) if he thinks he can escape death.
   2. Anónimo:
      • “Romance de Doña Alda” («En París está Doña Alda»)
        --AAAA, that is Anonymous, Alda, Assonance (typical of the romances), and A for At the beginning of the Alphabet (first works studied, the first literary period, the Middle Ages).
2. El Renacimiento
   1. Garcilaso de la Vega:
      • «Cuando me paro a contemplar mi estado»
        --Garcilaso de la Vega = GDLV, Gosh, Don't Let'm View that state he's in!
      • «En tanto que de rosa y de azucena»
        --Garcilaso de la Vega = GDLV, Garpe Diem = Grab Dat Lovely Vemale!
   2. Santa Teresa de Jesús:
      • “Vivo sin vivir en mi”
      • “Nada te turbe”
        --ST, Santa Teresa, is the first SAINT in the bunch, and both titles suggest this saintly detachment from the world and faith in God.
   3. San Juan de la Cruz:
      • “Noche oscura”
        --JUAN = Juan Uses an Awesome/Abscure Night.
3. El Barroco
   1. Luis de Góngora:
      • «Mientras por competir con tu cabello»
        --Góngora for the gong which sounds the beginning of the competition (“competir con tu cabello”).
      • «De pura honestidad templo sagrado»
        --Góngora for the gong which sounds from the belfry of that temple.
   2. Francisco de Quevedo:
      • «Miré los muros de la patria mía»
        --Que-ve-do = ¿Qué ve don Francisco? ¿Muros?
   3. Lope de Vega:
      • «¿Qué tengo yo, que mi amistad procuras?»
        --VE-Ga for “¡Ve! Get outa here!”, which is what he is telling Jesus, the “vagrant” at his door.
      • «Es la mujer del hombre lo más bueno»
        --You'd tell Vega to “¡Ve! Get outa here!”, if you were a woman and heard him reciting this poem to you.
   4. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz:
      • “A su retrato” («Este que ves, engaño colorido»)
      • “A una rosa” («Rosa divina que en gentil cultura»)
        --Sor spelled backwards is of course Ros(a), for the sonnet “A una Rosa”; also, “A su Retrato” starts with an R, another work by this Ravishing and Rare Rose of a woman.
4. El Romanticismo
   1. José de Espronceda:
      • “Soledad del alma” («Mi alma yace en soledad profunda»)
      • “Canción del pirata” («Con diez cañones por banda»)
        --José: Jo-say can you see (by the dawn's early light) the flag (band[er]a) amidst the red glare of the cañones? Yes, José even if you Ja-say (yace) “en soledad profunda”.
   2. Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda:
      • “A Él” («Era la edad lisonjera»)
        --All of those e's (at least one in every word of her name) in Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda can't help but evoke the title and first line: “A Él” («Era la edad lisonjera»).
   3. Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer:
      • «Yo soy ardiente, yo soy morena»
        --Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer = Gee, Ardent (ardiente) and Black (morena).
      • «Volverán las oscuras golondrinas»
        --Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer = Gustavo/Golondrinas and the Birds.
        

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