Jorge Manrique

Jorge Manrique (c. 1440 – 24 April 1479) was a major Castilian poet, whose main work, the Coplas por la muerte de su padre ('Verses on the death of Don Rodrigo Manrique, his Father'), is still read today. Quotes Nuestras vidas son los ríos Que van a dar en Ia mar, Que es el morir. Our lives are rivers, gliding free,To that unfathomed, boundless sea,The silent grave! Coplas por la Muerte de su Padre (c. 1460) — Tr. Longfellow (1833) Quotes about Manrique The great poet of the fifteenth century was Jorge Manrique, famous for his Ode on the Death of His Father, generally referred to as his Coplas (verses), written in 1478. A solemn and majestic elegy, it is perhaps the best-known poem in Spanish literature and has been beautifully translated into English by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. John A. Crow, Introduction to An Anthology of Spanish Poetry (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1979), p. xxx There is nothing new or original in either the thoughts or the images of this poem. Like Gray's Elegy, it consists of a string of commonplaces. [...] Why then are these Coplas so good? The answer is simple—because under the stress of a strong emotion they condensed a great deal of floating sentiment and rhetoric into impeccable verse. Gerald Brenan, The Literature of the Spanish People (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1953), p. 98 External links Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Coplas de Don Jorge Manrique (Boston: Allen & Ticknor, 1833) Category:Poets from Spain Category:1479 deaths