835-1881), Adolfo Garcia (1830-1883), Constantino
Carrasco (1841-1877) and others, see the introduction to
the _Poesias_ (Lima, 1887) of Ricardo Palma (1833-___:
till 1912 director of the national library of Peru).]

Not often could the romanticists of America go back to page 305
indigenous legend for inspiration as their
Spanish cousins so often did; but this Constantino
Carrasco undertook to do in his translation of the famous
Quichua drama, _Ollanta_. It was long claimed, and many
still believe, that this is an ancient indigenous play;
but to-day the more thoughtful critics are inclined to
consider it an imitation of the Spanish classical drama,
perhaps written in the Quichua language by some Spanish
priest (Valdes?). The 8-syllable lines, the rime-scheme
and the spirit of the play all suggest Spanish influence.
In parenthesis it should be added that Quichua verse is
still cultivated artificially in Peru and Ecuador.

The two men of that generation who have most distinguished
themselves are Pedro Paz-Soldan y Unanue, "Juan de Arona"
(1839-1894), a poet of satire and humor; and Ricardo Palma
(1833-___) a leading scholar and literary critic, best
known for his prose _Tradiciones peruanas_ (Lima, 1875 and
1899).

The strongest representative of the present-day
"_modernistas_" in Peru is Jose Santos Chocano
(1867-___), a disciple of Dario. Chocano writes with much
grandiloquence. His many sonnets are mostly prosaic, but
some are finished and musical (cf. _La magnolia_). He
is more Christian (cf. _Evangeleida_) than most of his
contemporaries, and he sings of the _conquistadores_ with
true admiration [cf. _En la aldea_, Lima, 1895; _Iras
santas_, Lima, 1895; _Alma America_ (_Prologo_ de Miguel
de Unamuno), Madrid, 1906; _La selva virgen_, Paris, 1901;
_Fiat lux_, Paris, 1908].

A younger man is Edilberto Zegarra Ballon of Arequipa
(1880-___), author of _Vibraciones, Poemas, el al._ His
verse is simpler and less rugged than that of the more
virile Chocano.

References: Men. Pel., _Ant. Poetas Hisp.-Amer._, III,
p. cxlix f.; Blanco Garcia, III, 362 f.; _Diccionario
historico y biografico del Peru, formado y redactado
por Manuel de Mendiburu_, 9 vols., Lima, 1874-80;
_Coleccion de documentos literarios del Peru_, 11
vols., Manuel de Odriozola, Lima, 1863-74; page 306
_America poetica_, Juan Maria Gutierrez, Valparaiso,
1846; _Parnaso peruano_, J.D. Cortes, Pa