Abstract

ALATORRE, Antonio. Time and Poetry. Acta poét [online]. 2011, vol.32, n.1, pp.19-87. ISSN 2448-735X.

This "article anthology" given to us by Antonio Alatorre several months before his death consists of a series of sonnets about the passing of time. It begins with a passage by Ovid, which is followed by some translations and adaptations by Italian Renaissance poets; however, the majority of the sonnets gathered here were written by Iberian poets -Spanish, Portuguese and even a couple from Catalonia- in the 16th and 17th centuries. In choosing these poems, Alatorre privileges pieces that are formally quite sophisticated: thus we find echo sonnets, sonnets written as continuous poems, sonnets structured around anaphora and so on. As a coda to the collection, Alatorre adds a few sonnets from the last couple of centuries that follow the same thematic and formal pattern as the Ovid sonnet that opened the anthology -one by an 18th century Spanish poet and a few by 20th century Mexican poets. The obvious delight that the author takes in choosing these poems and the care he takes in putting them together illustrate brilliantly that mix of sparkling creativity and philological scholarship that is so characteristic of Alatorre's style.

Keywords : Sonnet; Time; Golden Age; Renaissance poetry; Iberian poets; 16th-17th centuries.

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