preview

Summary Of ' Why Literature ' By Ruben Dario 's A Roosevelt Essay

Good Essays

In his essay “Why Literature?” Varga Llosa exalted with great enthusiasm that the value of literature is the way it makes us think and question and create. As such, it is a value that can be seen, more often than not, in the subversive feature of literature that allows for the uprising of minds against the norms that society imposes and the guidelines that leaders define and proclaim. As such, Rubén Darío’s A Roosevelt is a poem worth studying, as with its multiple historical reference and its direct attack against the former president and the United States of America, one would truly be hard pressed to find a better example of Llosa’s exclamations and the subversive nature of literature. To understand literature, one must first understand the form. Darío’s A Roosevelt is a poem that is composed of fifty-one line arranged in five irregular stanzas with verses of “arte mayor,” meaning they have 9 or more syllables per line, and free verse (source). This creates an interesting story-like effect to poem, which is only aided further by the use of many historical and mythological references. Additionally, the poem can be divided into two great parts. The first part is from verse number one to verse twenty-nine, that is, the first three verses. In this first part the poet describes the United States, from his point of view, and all that characterizes the “personality” of this State. Darío shows resentment towards this country of which he speaks and attributes to him a series of

Get Access