ed with true
poetic fancy and the sweetest melody, but the many
inversions of word-order that were used to attain to
perfection of metrical form detract not a little from
their charm. His writings are contained in three small
volumes in which are found, together with the _Rimas_, a
collection of prose legends. His prose work is page xl
filled with morbid mysticism or fairy-like mystery. His
dreamy prose is often compared to that of Hoffmann and his
verses to those of Heine, although it is doubtful if he
was largely influenced by either of these German writers.
Becquer sings primarily of idealized human love. His
material life was wretched and it would seem that his
spirit took flight into an enchanted land of its own
creation. Most human beings love to forget at times their
sordid surroundings and wander in dreamland; hence the
enduring popularity of Becquer's works and especially of
the _Rimas_. Becquer has been widely imitated throughout
the Spanish-speaking world, but with little success. In
this connection it should be noted that the Spanish poets
who have most influenced the Spanish literature of the
nineteenth century, both in the Peninsula and in
America, are the Tyrtaean poet Quintana, the two leading
romanticists Espronceda and Zorrilla and the mystic
Becquer.

Like most writers in Latin lands, Juan VALERA y Alcala
Galiano (1824-1905) and Marcelino MENENDEZ Y PELAYO
(1856-1912) began their literary career with a volume or
two of lyric verses. Valera's verses have perfect metrical
form and evince high scholarship, but they are too learned
to be popular. The lyrics of Menendez y Pelayo have also
more merit in form than in inspiration and are lacking in
human interest. Both authors turned soon to more congenial
work: Valera became the most versatile and polished of all
nineteenth century Spanish writers of essays and novels;
and Menendez y Pelayo became Spain's greatest scholar in
literary history. The popular novelist, Pedro Antonio de
ALARCON (1833-1891), wrote lyrics in which there is a
curious blending of humor and skepticism. page xli
The foremost Spanish poet of the closing years of the
nineteenth century was Ramon de CAMPOAMOR y Campoosorio
(1817-1901) who is recognized as the initiator in Spain
of a new type of verse in his _Doloras_ and _Pequenos
poemas_. The _doloras_ are, for the most part, metrical
fables or epigrams, dramatic or anecdotal in form, in
whic