The Poetry of Heredia by José María Heredia
"The Poetry of Heredia" refers to the works of José María Heredia y Campuzano, a Cuban poet whose writings reflect his complex relationship with both his homeland and the broader themes of liberty and nature. Born during a time of growing unrest in Cuba, Heredia's early poetry expresses a fondness for Spain, depicting it as a "tender Mother." However, his later works reveal an intense disillusionment with Spanish rule, fueled by personal and political struggles, including his banishment after political activism.
Heredia's poetry is marked by a romantic sensibility, intertwining vivid natural imagery with deep emotional introspection. Notable poems such as "En el teocalli de Cholula," "Ode to Niagara," and "In a Hurricane" showcase his ability to capture the beauty and ferocity of nature while grappling with feelings of exile and nostalgia. His passionate verses often echo his longing for freedom and his observations of the American landscape.
Throughout his career, Heredia emerged as a significant voice in Latin American literature, using poetry as a means of both personal expression and political commentary. His work has become emblematic of the struggle for Cuban independence and the broader Romantic movement across the continent.
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The Poetry of Heredia by José María Heredia
First published:Poems, 1825
Critical Evaluation:
José María Heredia y Campuzano, born in Cuba at a time when the island was beginning to resent its position as a territorial possession of Spain, was regarded by Spaniards as “the compendium and epitome of all enmity toward Spain.” Yet, at least in his early period, he considered himself a Spaniard and referred in his poetry to “tender Mother Spain.” During his youth, his father was chief judge in a court in Caracas that had to try rebels against the tyranny of Monteverde. Because of leniency, the judge was demoted to a position in Mexico where José María lived until his father’s death. Then he went to Havana to complete his law studies.
There he became a member of a club of revolutionists called Soles de Bolivar (Suns of Bolivar), who were plotting for Cuban independence. Heredia supported the 1820 revolution in Spain of Rafael del Riego and wrote angry poems against a “stupid Spain” for executing him. It is no wonder that after he had been admitted to the bar in 1823 and had begun to practice law in Matanzas, he was picked up at the outbreak of a revolution that same year and sentenced to perpetual banishment. With all the poetry he had written in Mexico and Cuba, he went to New York. There he spent two years as a journalist, writing literary and theatrical criticism, and in 1825 publishing his first volume of poems, which contains practically all that are best known. A later supposedly “augmented edition” from Toluca in 1832 contained only a few unimportant new original poems, some translations, and a philosophical dissertation in verse on immortality that added little to his reputation. The New York printing contained a preface in English extolling the virtues of the volume as an aid for North Americans wanting to learn Spanish. Heredia added: “May the readers accept this small service from an exiled young man as an expression of gratitude for the asylum he has found in this happy country.”
Among the long poems in this volume were “En el teocalli de Cholula” (“On the Temple Pyramid of Cholula”), “En una tempestad” (“In a Hurricane”), “A Niagara” (“Ode to Niagara Falls”), and “Al sol” (“To the Sun”). They were well received. Possibly their tinge of melancholy, so like his own poetry, made William Cullen Bryant decide to translate two of them, “In a Hurricane” and “Ode to Niagara Falls,” that were published in the UNITED STATES REVIEW AND LITERARY GAZETTE, in 1827, the first Latin American poetry to appear in English.
In 1830 the youthful Argentine poet Esteban Echeverria returned to his native Buenos Aires after spending five years among the Romantic poets of France; his advice to his fellow writers was to break away from literary dependence on Spain and to hymn the natural beauties of the New World. Heredia was already painting in poetry the American scene and expressing romantic ideas in classic verse forms. In “On the Temple Pyramid of Cholula” he used ten-syllable unrhymed lines resembling English blank verse.
Seated in the ancient Aztec temple, the youthful poet watched the sun setting behind the volcano Iztaccihual, whose snowcap was tinged with gold. The stars came out, and as the moon descended, the shadow of Popocatepec, like a colossal ghost, extended till it covered the earth. This eclipse of nature caused the poet to ponder on the passing of the cruel Aztec rulers and all their glory. In this passing he saw how temporary is human fury and madness.
In the poem, the reader finds such classical touches as a mention in the American landscape of the olive tree “sacred to Minerva,” and of Titan and his struggle against the gods of Olympus. With the subjectivity of later romantic poets, Heredia, though describing a scene in Mexico through the eyes of a seventeen-year-old, was actually poetizing his soul and its agony at what it sees.
In his “Ode to Niagara Falls,” Nature stirred his emotions to take lyrical form. Confronting this marvel, he thought of the still greater marvels of God and Time. In the awesomeness of the scene, he was filled with nostalgia for his native Cuba. Cynics may remark that the sense of absence is a common theme of literature, and Heredia had scarcely spent enough years of his life in Cuba to become very closely attached to it. He had never been happy or felt at home there, any more than he had in Mexico or in the United States. In reality he had no roots. But melancholy is an emotion common to much poetry, and Heredia was a poet. The sight of the rushing water set his poet’s heart pounding. As Bryant translated the opening lines:
My lyre! Give me my lyre! My bosom
Though the poet had never been so moved before, he felt that something was missing from this scene:
The delicious palms that on the plains
But a few moments of contemplation changed his mind.
But no, Niagara,—thy forest pines
A few lines later, bemoaning his hopeless situation and wondering how an unfrozen heart can be happy without love, he expressed a wish that some one worthy of being loved could share his walk. At the end, however, the longing for glory swept over him, and while he knew he would be dead within a few years, he expressed the hope that his verse, like Niagara, might be immortal and that in heaven he could “Listen to the echoes of my fame.” At one point in the poem Heredia declared:
From my very boyhood have I
The full intensity of his temperament is revealed in his “Ode to the Hurricane.” “Hurricane, hurricane, I feel thee coming,” he begins. Then he ascends to poetic heights in a description of the color, the fury, the roar, and the horror of the storm. The poet’s personal reaction concludes the poem. The sublimity of the storm makes him forget the vileness of the world. He raises his head in delight. Amid the roar, he rises to the throne of God and with hot tears streaming down his cheeks he adores God’s lofty majesty.
Ardor and passion also fill a number of Heredia’s political poems that voice love of liberty and hatred of oppression. Cato, Riego, and Napoleon are admired as champions of liberty in excellent sonnets. His “Himno del desterrado” (“Hymn of the Exile”), written in 1825 and prophesying Cuba’s freedom from Spain, served as a rallying cry for three quarters of a century until independence was finally won.