Jose Velarde

José Velarde Yusti (Conil de la Frontera, November 10, 1848-Madrid, February 22, 1892) was a Spanish poet.

Biography

Caricatured by Cilla in Madrid (1881)

Born on November 10, 1848 in the Cadiz town of Conil de la Frontera, he studied Medicine. He then moved to Seville, where, around 1873, he reluctantly practiced his job as a Welfare doctor, since he preferred to dedicate himself to literature. He was a regular at the literary gathering at the Liceo and participated in the newspapers La Tribuna, El Demócrata Andaluz, El Gran Mundo or El Liceo Sevillano along with young Sevillian writers such as Carlos Peñaranda, Juan José Bueno or Luis Montoto and Rautenstrauch, and he also directed the political newspaper El Estado Andaluz. With his friend Juan Antonio Cavestany and Mario Méndez Bejarano he founded the Liceo de Sevilla.

So he gave up his profession to move to Madrid (1878), with his dear friend Juan Antonio Cavestany, with the intention of dedicating himself to journalism and literature. With Cavestany he successfully premiered the drama Peter the Bastard . He published his first verses and articles in La Ilustración Española y Americana . José Zorrilla and Ramón de Campoamor had joined his private Parnaso, who, in his position as general director of Charity, granted him a credential of six thousand reais. In 1897, Antonio Cánovas del Castillo it gave him another more profitable destination in the Treasury. In Madrid he frequented gatherings (among them, Juan Valera's), salons and the Ateneo, a space in which he achieved great triumphs with the reading of the poems "Fray Juan", "To God" and "Laredo". In his "Cacharrería" he met and became friends with José Zorrilla, Juan Valera, José Echegaray, Ramón de Campoamor, Federico Balart, Antonio Fernández Grilo and Ventura Ruiz Aguilera.

Wrote for El Imparcial, La Iberia progressive daily, El Heraldo de Madrid, La Época, daily moderate, La Correspondencia de España daily newscast... He regularly attended the famous Cacharrería del Ateneo, where he made great friends with José Zorrilla, Juan Valera, José Echegaray, Ramón de Campoamor, Federico Balart, Antonio Fernández Grilo and Ventura Ruiz Aguilera. He joined the ranks of the liberals along with Cánovas del Castillo, and was a convinced monarchist and defender of Alfonso XII. And thanks to the economic protection of the king, Velarde was able to avoid a bohemian and eventful existence. Velarde was one of the poets most combated by critics. Among his detractors was "Clarín" in the first place, although no less acrimonious were Emilio Bobadilla and Antonio de Valbuena. issued the following judgement:

Velarde describes with precision; he is a literary photographer, better said, a daguerreotipist, for the color is present in his works; Velarde has in his compositions very accurate fragments, sculptural verses model of correction and harmony, brilliant brilliance in many images, and, what is undeniable, exact descriptions that appear to be with palette and brush. It can be said, finally, that his works are superior to the poet, that the invoice dominates the essence, and graphics to the ethical.

His poetry is highly influenced by his contemporaries such as Gaspar Núñez de Arce and José Zorrilla, especially the latter, since, like him, Velarde wrote legends in verse.

In order to support the family, made up of his wife Lucía Castro Pinzón and six children, in his last days he had to avail himself of the help of the Duchess of Almodóvar del Río, who managed, according to Luis Montoto, that the Marquis de Comillas helped him. Despite everything, he died in poverty, leaving a widow and six children.

The Spanish poet of the XX century, Gabriel Celaya quotes him ironically in a poem to refer to his outdated poetry: "I remember Núñez de Arce and Don José Velarde, / so rhetorical, wise, / so poetic, false, / when Bécquer lived, so intelligent, / so poor in decorations, / so direct, alive.[... ]&#3. 4;.

Velarde's main value is that of being one of the precursors of modernism in Spain, together with Manuel Reina, Ricardo Gil and Carlos Fernández-Shaw. Furthermore, it was the reason why the poet José Zorrilla wrote his memoirs under the title Recuerdos del tiempo viejo (1880-1882, 3 vols.), since it was made up of letters that, originally addressed to Velarde, saw the light in Los Lunes de El Imparcial from October 1879. Zorrilla dedicated the work to him: "To the distinguished poet Don José Velarde as a pledge of friendship and gratitude, José skunk. Barcelona, January 10, 1881)". Montoto recounts that Zorrilla, after listening to his poem "To God" at the Ateneo, told him enthusiastically: «Nobody has said that in Spanish: please repeat it." Marta Palenque judges that the most interesting of Velard's production for today's reader are the short poems and legends ("El trovador", "Teodomiro", "Toros y cañas", "El año campestre"), in which the zorrillasque influence. In his time, those of a civil nature were also highly valued, in the manner of Núñez de Arce, such as "El poeta a su musa" and "Tempestades", a text selected by Narciso Alonso Cortés for The hundred best poems of the 19th century. In addition, Juan Valera had previously included it in volume IV of his Florilegio de poesías castellanas del siglo XIX.

He died on February 22, 1892 in Madrid. One of his descendants was the first wife of the father of Juan Ramón Jiménez.

Works

• Poetry1872.
• Poetry, Seville, 1876
• New poetry, Seville, 1878, 2.a ed., 1881)
• Joy Introduction and four parts (The march, the house, the laundromat, the escape, speeches)
• Teodomiro or The cave of Christ (1879), work dedicated to his native people (Conil de la Fra.)
• The girl of Gómez Arias (1880)
• On the shores of the sea (1882)
• Voices of the soul (1884)
• The last kiss(1884)
• With Juan Antonio Cavestany, Pedro the Bastard, Madrid, Imprenta Velasco, 1888.
• Before the crucifix
• My love

His letters to José Navarrete have been compiled in Bulls and Chimborazos. He was also the author with his friend Juan Antonio Cavestany of a play that premiered in Madrid with great success and which he titled: Pedro el bastardo . His works are preserved in the Ateneo de Madrid, where he entered in 1879 with member number 4,267 and in his museum of illustrious poets, along with the greatest of all time, hangs a portrait of Velarde painted by Manuel Fernández Carpio.. In the library of the universities of Córdoba, Jaén, Málaga, Baleares, Burgos, Palencia, Seville, Segovia, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara, Toledo, Cáceres, Pontevedra and Madrid, you can study his poems and legends. Also in the Royal Library are two volumes of his Complete Works autographed with dedications by Velarde "To Her Majesty the Reigning Queen Dña. María Cristina testimony of respect and gratitude", the first volume and the second "To S.A.R. Ms. Isabel de Borbón, Infanta of Spain, in testimony of adhesion".