Marti and Dario

Walt Whitman is considered the most influential American poet of his time. He “celebrated the most overlooked people, from slaves and prostitute to immigrants and prisoners” (Puchner, 646). Latin American poets Jose’ Marti and Ruben Dario, who were the Whitman’s of their time and place, found inspiration in the works of Whitman.  This inspiration allowed them to depict their own hardships  during their revolutionary eras through the uses of landscape and nature.

Jose Marti was a Cuban writer who “entwined his revolutionary political activities with his art” (Puchner, 680). In his poem I Am an Honest Man (Guantanamera), Marti uses the aspects of nature to define his emotions much like Whitman does in his poem “21”. Marti proclaims “In the mountains, I am a mountain” (line 8) and “the dark night, rain over my head, the pure rays of lightning of divine beauty”. The security of the landscape and tribulations of the weather are like the emotions he feels within his troubled soul.

Ruben Dario claimed his homeland as Nicaragua, Chile, Argentina, Colombia and the continent of Europe (Puchner, 689). Dario lived in troubled times in each of the countries, and the unsettled sentiments of his life carried over into the tone of his poetry. Like Whitman and Marti, he uses nature to reveal emotion. In Fatality, Dario describes “the tree is happy because it is scarcely sentient; the hard rock is happier still, it feels nothing” (lines 1-2). This line refers to a life of change making life eventful but sometimes to be hard of feeling keeps us from getting hurt. “To Roosevelt” mentions Whitman by name, assigning kudos to the poet.  Dario again utilizes nature and its elements. Dario compares life to a “fire” and “progress is an eruption” (line 16). Only when emotions overflow in people who can bear no more does change occur.

Works Cited

Dario, Ruben. "Fatality." The Norton Anthology of World Literature, 1650 to Present. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 695. Print.

Dario, Ruben. "To Roosevelt." The Norton Anthology of World Literature, 1650-Present. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 693-694. Print.

Marti, Jose. "I Am An Honest Man (Guantanamera)." The Norton Anthology of World Literature 1650 to Present. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 681-682. Print.

Puchner, Martin. "Joe Marti 1853-1895." The Norton Anthology of World Literature. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 680-681. Print.

Puchner, Martin. "Ruben Dario 1867-1916." The Norton Anthology of World Literature, 1650 to Present. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 689-691. Print.

Whitman, Walt. "21." The Norton Anthology of World Literature. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 650-651. Print.