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Soledad in the Poetry of Jorge Carrera Andrade

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

William F. Heald
William F. Heald*
Affiliation:
Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio
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Extract

The later poetry of Jorge Carrera Andrade shares with other literary efforts of our time the anguished conviction that solitude is the ultimate reality of man's existence, but it is not dominated, as is so much contemporary literature, by a sense of despair or frustration. On the contrary, his poetry arouses in the reader a curiously mild regret at the human predicament, and, at the same time, a calm, resigned optimism. Carrera does not achieve his effect by merely juxtaposing contradictory ideas or attitudes; instead, he fuses disparate elements so as to transmute the components into a new and unified whole.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 76 , Issue 5 , December 1961 , pp. 608 - 612
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1961

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References

Note 1 in page 608 Shri Baldoon Dbingra, “Leaves from a Paris Diary,” Aryan Path, xxix (Nov. 1958), 523, maintains that Carrera's poetry expresses the belief that “Solitude is the final reality of our planet.” In “The Poetry of Jorge Carrera Andrade,” John Peale Bishop's fine introduction to Muna Lee's translation of Secret Country (New York, 1946), it is pointed out that solitude is the true subject of all the poems in that slim volume. Neither of these perceptive observers, however, reveals the extent or explores the full implication of Carrera's treatment of solitude.

It might be mentioned here that Jorge Carrera Andrade, who began his literary career in Ecuador in 1918 and who proved to be a prolific writer until he abandoned poetry when he accepted a position with UNESCO in 1954, has long been considered one of the better Latin American poets of our time. Most of the published comments on him are in the form of brief reviews, notes, or notices, and there are comparatively few detailed studies of his poetic work. With no intention of denigrating other criticisms, I should like to acknowledge my indebtedness to the three articles I have found most illuminating. Pedro Salinas, “Registro de Jorge Carrera Andrade,” Revista iberoamericana, v (octubre de 1942), 285–294; Antonio de Undurraga, “La órbita poética de Jorge Carrera Andrade,” Revista iberoamericana, iv (febrero de 1942), 293–303; and Edmond Vandercammen, “Profil Lyrique de Jorge Carrera Andrade,” Adam International Review, xvi (July-August 1948), 27–29.

Note 2 in page 608 Although the poems quoted herein were first published in various places and at various times, most of them were gathered in Registro del Mundo (Quito, 1940). Those found in another volume will be so noted.

Note 3 in page 609 In El Visitante de Niebla, 2nd ed. (Quito, 1947).

Note 4 in page 609 Ibid.

Note 5 in page 610 Tokio, 1940, p. 27.

Note 6 in page 611 Ibid.