Cinco Rimas Fantasmales de Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer

Abstract

Observing how a specific theme emerges within the work of a poet leads to greater appreciation of stylistic technique and to a better understanding of human experience. In this paper we study the poetry of Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer to perceive how a lover's passion transforms itself into an autonomous entity that travels through space. Relevant connections between poems must be carefully traced. We start by examining the nostalgia evoked by remembrance of past love in Rhyme LIII. We then see in Rhyme LXXV the lament over absence of the beloved develop into an intimation of whether in sleep we may penetrate a dimension where other spirits dwell. The wonderment grows in the related Rhyme LXXI as it expresses the amazing premonition of a friend's death. In order to comprehend this memorable lyric we next explore the transformation of romantic desire into the wandering phantom lover of the beguilingly repetitive and intricate Rhymes XVI and XXVIII.