The Black Heralds by César Vallejo
"The Black Heralds" is a significant poetry collection by César Vallejo, known for its unique intersection of diverse cultural and existential themes. The collection gained critical acclaim upon its release and is praised for its intense exploration of Catholic imagery, indigenous Peruvian culture, and personal grief. Vallejo's work reflects deep philosophical inquiries regarding human existence, often presenting the individual's vulnerability against a backdrop of cosmic indifference. Notable poems such as "Our Daily Bread" and "Prayer of the Road" exemplify his transformative use of religious motifs to confront intimate existential dilemmas.
The titular poem, "The Black Heralds," stands out as a powerful expression of defiance towards divine suffering, resonating within the Spanish-speaking literary community. The collection is divided into several sections, revealing Vallejo's evolving voice and stylistic experimentation, particularly evident in poems like "The Spider" and "The Eternal Dice." Additionally, "Nostalgias imperiales" highlights his socio-political engagement with themes of colonial exploitation and labor rights. The collection also weaves in personal themes of longing and familial loss, as seen in tributes to his father and brother, enriching the emotional depth of Vallejo's work. Overall, "The Black Heralds" serves as a compelling entry point into Vallejo's poetic exploration of the human condition.
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The Black Heralds by César Vallejo
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of World Literature, Revised Edition
First published:Los heraldos negros, 1918 (English translation, 1990)
Type of work: Poetry
The Work
The release of The Black Heralds earned Vallejo a good deal of positive critical attention, much more so than his second book, Trilce, would initially garner with its 1922 release. Much of the critical interest in The Black Heralds derives from the book’s fervent, unique exploration of the intersections of Catholic rhetoric, indigenous Peruvian culture, personal loss, and Vallejo’s perceptions of the world as brimming with erotic energy and an absurd excess of existential agony. This is exemplified by poems such as “El pan nuestro” (“Our Daily Bread”), “Oración del camino” (“Prayer of the Road’), and “Espergesia” (“Epexegesis”), which transform Catholic motifs and icons into metaphors for the framing of intimate, pained questions about an individual human being’s ontological insignificance. Similarly, the book’s title poem, “Los heraldos negros” (“The Black Heralds”), is a furious defiance of God in His most violent moments, which render one speechless yet vigorously innervated in that silence. “The Black Heralds” is one of the most renowned individual poems in the Spanish-speaking world.
After “The Black Heralds,” the introductory poem in the collection, the book comprises six sections. Most of those sections include at least a few sentimental and/or melodramatic lyrical poems, which is typical of many young poets. After all, Vallejo had written most of these poems in his early to mid-twenties. However, throughout the book readers can spot the emergence of Vallejo’s voice, which sounds itself most audibly in poems like “La araña” (“The Spider”) and “Los dados eternos” (“The Eternal Dice”). There he works with a swift pace, both intellectually and rhythmically, building a narrative sequence disjointed by iconoclastic juxtapositions of Catholic liturgy, natural metaphor, and a perspective on the cosmos as indifferent to individual suffering on Earth.
The book’s fourth section, “Nostalgias imperiales” (“Imperial Nostalgias”), intensifies that mix by adding Vallejo’s impassioned, political interest in exploited laborers, cultures, and resources, particularly in relation to the colonial sacking of Peruvian Incan land for its minerals and precious metals. Tangentially, one also should note the book’s consistent theme of longing for family, which manifests itself, for example, through the poem “Enereida,” honoring his father’s dissolution through the aging process, and the poem “A mi hermano Miguel” (“To My Brother Miguel”), eulogizing César’s deceased older brother, who died in 1915.
Bibliography
Hart, Stephen. Stumbling Between Forty-six Stars. London: Centre of César Vallejo Studies, 2007.
Higgins, James. César Vallejo: An Anthology of His Poetry. New York: Pergamon, 1970.
Sharman, Adam, ed. The Poetry and Poetics of Cesar Vallejo: The Fourth Angle of the Circle. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 1997.
Vallejo, César. Selected Poems. Edited by Stephen Hart. London: Bristol Classical Press, 2000.
Vallejo, César. Selected Poems. Translated by Michael Smith and Valentino Gianuzzi. Exeter, England: Shearsman Books, 2006.