She was born into a noble Galitzian family. She suffered a great emotional crisis in her adolescence after the discovery she was the illegitimate daughter of a priest, after which her delicate health never improved. Very devoted to her family, she felt extraordinary sorrow after the deaths of her mother and of one of his children. A poet exceptionally intuitive, she shows vital anxiety and anguished restlessness when facing strange forebodings and premonitions that she perceives in her close surroundings. Her painful sensitivity projects a set of magnificent visions of the Galician landscape in which a gray atmosphere of indefinable sadness predominates, conceiving nature as an animated and mysterious reality that transmits messages of the suffering and anguish of life.

During his stay in Castile, she wrote the book Cantares gallegos (1863), in which she reflects a  deep longing for her native land Galicia. The book constitutes a song to its rural Galicia and a denunciation of the exploitation of the Galician pickers in Castile. Her book Cantares Gallegos, written entirely in the Galician language, begins the poetic renaissance of this regional language,  a mission that would soon be supported by other authors. Follas novas (1880), also in Galician, expresses the intimate anguish with which the author reflects on the death and loneliness of the human being. A few years later she writes En las orillas del  Sar (1884), is a tormented confession of his most intimate feelings

Along with the romantic poet Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, she is considered the initiator of contemporary Spanish poetry. In contrast to Bécquer, Rosalía offers a superior thematic richness, does not forget the pain of others, and reflects a high sensitivity and appreciation to nature. Rosalía's work moves from a social concern for specific causes of her people, the situation of women in general, the fishermen, and the Galician peasants, to other causes of a more metaphysical nature, giving her a deserved place among existential literature writers, her influence extending to many later poets. 

La flor

A mi madre

Cantares gallegos

Ruinas

El caballero de las botas azules

Follas novas

En las orillas del Sar

In this book of poetry, the author explores her own inner world with a somewhat pessimistic vision of life, in the background of the magical natural world of Galicia, her native land.

Poetry

The word Romanticism refers to a cultural and political movement that had its heyday in the first half of the 19th century and that affected both Spain and other European and American countries. Spain adopted the general lines of Romanticism, with its own nuances due in large part to the turbulent political situation in the country. During the 19th century, Spain experienced one of the most agitated periods in its history. The century opens with the War of Independence and ends with the disaster of 1898, the date that marks the loss of colonial control of Cuba. The political tensions are enormous, and the national culture becomes negligible. The writers participate in the struggle between liberals and traditionalists that covers the entire century. Those Spanish writers with affinities to liberal Romanticism admire and consider as heroes the English Lord Byron and the French Victor Hugo, Among the most relevant are Alexander Dumas, Alfredo de Vigny, Espronceda, Gil de Zárate, and Hartzenbush.

Romantic poets are highly inspired writers, creating the poem by an emotional process that condenses what they feel till they obtain a product with a pure sentiment, bringing to life works of sincere and outstanding lyricism. This firm intention to match the poet's feelings on occasions produces the somehow unintended result of a poem falls into the vulgar, the prosaic, and the oratory. Most frequently the tones are melancholic, exultant, with occasional tones of protest that sometimes ends in nihilism. Most of the authors sing with loving intimacy,  inspired by historical, legendary, and exotic themes, prowling by an attraction to the mysterious. Their absolute rebellious attitude takes them to sometimes rebel against social norms and against life itself, their favorite values ​​being gallantry, virility, and dissent, always proclaiming their pessimism and gesture with a dishartened spirit.

Romanticism

Teatro Crítico I, by Benito J. Feijoo

Diccionario de Autoridades of Real Academia 

Orígenes de la lengua española, by Gregorio Mayans

Poética, by Ignacio de Luzán

Vida, by Diego de Torres Villarroel

Fray Gerundio de Campazas, by José Francisco de Isla

La petimetra, by Nicolás Fernández de Moratín

El delincuente honrado, by Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos

Fábulas morales, Félix M. Samaniego

Fábulas literarias, by Tomás de Iriarte

Poesías, by Juan Meléndez Valdés

Cartas marruecas, by José de Cadalso

La comedia nueva, by Leandro Fernández Moratín

Informe sobre la ley agraria, by Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos

Exequias de la lengua castellana, by Juan Pablo Former

Edition of the first French encyclopedia. Diderot's work, although widely criticized, can be considered the first modern encyclopedia.

Samuel Johnson publishes the Dictionary of the English language, with uses, customs and definitions of the words that make up the English language. Includes terms that appear in Shakespeare and other great authors of British literature.

Publication of Candide, by Voltaire. Candide is living a sheltered but indoctirinated life.

Harmonia Mundi, by Kepler

Novum Organum, by Bacon

Tartufo, by Molière

Don Juan, by Moière

Paradise Lost, by Milton

Ethics, by Spinoza

The 5th Symphony, by Ludwig van Beethoven. 

Symphonie Fantastique, by Hector Berlioz, the musical story of an artist's self-destructive passion for a beatiful woman.

Publication of the psychological novel Le Rouge et le Noir, by Stendhal.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles published The Communist Manifest.

The United Stated wins its independence from the UK.

The French Revolution begins and will end in late 1790 with the ascent of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Mozart's opera The Magic Flute, a luminous allegory of magic, premiers at Schikaneder's thater.

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En las orillas del Sar (1884)

By Rosalía de Castro

Time Period: Romanticism

Genre: Poetry

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