C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Luis de Góngora y Argote (1561–1627)
Góngora y Argote, Luis de (gon’gō-rä ē är-gō’tā). A Spanish poet; born in Cordova, June 11, 1561; died there, May 24, 1627. The dominant traits of his verse are studied artificiality, extreme pedantry and obscurity, and violent metaphors. Thus, he says of the beauty of a young girl that “it would inflame Norway with its two suns [eyes?], and whiten Ethiopia with its hands.” Gongorism, as this sort of thing was termed, had a horde of imitators, spread rapidly from Spain to France, and spoiled the style of a whole generation in both countries. ‘The Story of Polyphemus and Galatea’ and ‘The Story of Pyramus and Thisbe’ are its choicest expositions by its originator.