Mikaela Sandy
English 2800
Professor Peer
Blog Post Nov 28
Garcilaso de la Vega was born from a noble family. He was influenced by poetry in Italy. Major characteristics of his sonnets is that they are hendecasyllable. (11 syllables)
I will analyze the first sonnet of Garcilaso
“When I stand and contemplate my state,
And look back at the path that brought me here,”
We all had in our life a moment of realization of what has our life become. Is our life what we wanted it to be? Do we have regrets? Are we happy? Garcilaso here is analyzing where he stands in life and how he is feeling. He married Elena de Zuñiga, it was simply an aristocratic wedding with benefits for both. Garcilaso true love was Isabel Freire. This poem may have been written in representation of the frustrated love that was never fully lived. Here we also see a fusion of present and past. He looks back and tries to find where he went wrong. But later on he says “I might have met a much more bitter fate:” acknowledging that it could have been worse. This is proof or resignation on his behalf, which gives this poem a sense of sadness and hopelessness.
“I shall meet my end, for I gave my heart” In this sentence in Spanish it actually says “for I gave myself without art” which means he let his walls down and gave pure, honest love which let him to his end (death). “To one who could destroy and ruin me” Again we see between lines a broken heart and I can help to wonder what is the reason of his sorrow. Does he regret not being able to love the person he wanted? Or does he regret simply loving somebody?
This was a very thoughtful and interesting take. I do agreee with you when you said that De La Vega was analyzing his current state and looking back on the journey that led him to that point. I don’t think he was regretting not being able to love the person he wanted, I think he was regretting the act of loving. Loving anything always ends in sadness. Love is not only an emotion, it’s an act and in this act you are putting your heart on the line. You love someone and in that process they can destroy you by not reciprocating or appreciating your love. I think that is what De La Vega was describing.
Thank you for your analysis first of all. I totally agree with you that in life there is a time when we think we are satisfied with life or not. As De la Vega was not satisfied with his current situation according to me because he wasn’t able to love the person back who loved him so much. Love is like giving the trigger of the gun in someone’s hand and trusting them blindly that they won’t pull the trigger. You could be dead from inside in just a matter of time. This is what I feel that De la Vega was trying to explain to us.
I like the way you put his words into an interesting perspective. When it comes to love affairs, it always goes one of two ways: for the better or for the worse. Although his sorrow could be for both reasons, loving somebody and not being able to love the person he wanted, I think its mainly not being able to love the person he wanted. Loving someone will give you sorrow but not as to the degree of not being able to love the person he wanted to, because you can’t grow feelings for someone by force. Its easier to stop loving someone than make yourself love someone. I find De La Vega’s writing to still be relevant in our everyday’s lives.
I like your perspective on the meaning of love in this play. I feel that the situation being described by Garcilaso de la Vega is a feeling that all individuals have gone or will go through in life; the feeling of regret. No matter what decision we make in our love lives or lives in general, we’ll always wonder how the result would have been if we had done something differently. In this poem, I believe that Garcilaso is implying that love always had a “bad” and unfit ending, no matter what is done to prevent it. I agree with Hortencia that this poem correlates well with love life in modern day society.
I partially agree with your interpretation in combination with the above ( A. Budhrum). I feel as though Garcilaso De La Vega is describing an ill fate either way. There is no way to traverse a path like this without the possibility of failure or unintended consequence. Like it was stated in the short bio these sonnets evoke introspection and De La Vega did his part in dividing blame amongst both parties of the relationship since they both have a sufficient amount agency.