Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"On the Latin American Harp: 1. Nightfall in the Tropics" by Felix Ruben Garcia Sarmiento, a Nicaraguan poet (1867-1916), also known as Rubén Darío, is a poetic landscape that dabbles in the richness of nature while evoking ethereal, almost spiritual, experiences. The poem captures the transition from daylight to twilight, featuring the sea, the sky, and the elemental forces that contribute to this cyclical yet ever-mysterious transformation. In doing so, the poem gains both atmospheric depth and thematic weight, engaging with nature as both a physical realm and a source of inexpressible emotions.

The poem starts with a gloomy twilight, setting the tone as one of solemnity and awe. Nature is anthropomorphized: the sea leaves "velvet trails," and the wind "surprises" the waves into weeping. The sea and the sky are not just environmental elements; they are sentient beings participating in the twilight ritual. The word choice here is meticulous; "velvet" suggests a lush, tactile quality to the scene, and the phrase "heavens roomy" offers an expansive space that borders on the sublime.

As the poem progresses, the atmosphere deepens into one of haunting beauty. Viols, or stringed instruments, are heard "amid the gloaming," further personifying the setting sun and the "white spray" of the sea as mourners in a requiem. The "Miserere" sighed by the white spray is a Latin term meaning "have mercy," adding a layer of religious overtone to the scene. This builds upon the poem's spiritual undertones and likens the sea's "chanting" to a sort of prayer or hymn.

The language employed evokes harmony and an ethereal order. When the "clarions of horizons" call, it's as if the distant mountains and the sea are in symphonic agreement, blurring the line between the earthly and the divine. The poem concludes with a tone of grandeur and impending doom, using phrases like "dread unseen" and "the lion's roar" to suggest both awe and a touch of menace.

Interestingly, the poem features a confluence of natural and supernatural, of human emotion and elemental grandeur. It ascribes emotional depth to nature-bitterness, sorrow, and the haunting melodies of stringed instruments-while also capturing the idea that nature itself is a symphony of interconnected events, sights, and sounds. The sea, the wind, and even the distant mountains are not just physical phenomena; they are entities in dialogue with one another, each contributing its unique voice to the greater symphony of the world.

Rubén Darío was a pioneer of the Modernismo movement in Latin American literature, and this poem mirrors the intricate interplay of nature and emotion that is a hallmark of the era. "Nightfall in the Tropics" becomes more than just a poetic depiction of a setting sun; it serves as a meditation on the transcendental experience of beauty, the sacred symphonies of nature, and the intricate webs of emotion and spirituality that hover in the spaces between the tangible and the ineffable.

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