Vallejo’s poems had in their expressions of personal emotions shown by use of imagery that at first glance seems like tongue in cheek, but when looked into more carefully, one realizes the meaningful word play by Vallejo (Poetry Foundation, online). To emphasize the surreal effects of the themes, this paper shall compare four of his poems, including Trilce XXVIII, the Black Heralds, Spain, Let This Cup Pass from Me, and Black Stone on a White Stone.
The poetry of The Black Heralds is a literary example of indigenism and was seen to only possessing inadequate value and only a hint of originality. It represents too much loss when life feels like it has been lessened and like there is no remedy to help lessen the loss’s effects. He felt that the “blows in life” were “so powerful” that he could not understand about them, why life was that hard, he just “[didn’t] know”. These lines emphasize the themes of compassion, existential anguish and perpetual suffering in the hands of his adversaries. Comparing Black Heralds and Trilce XXVIII, Vallejo in the latter, particularly, lines 2-4writes “Blows as from the hatred of God; as if, facing them, the undertow of everything suffered,” he blames God for his suffering and expresses his hatred to God.Trilce XXVIII is a poem of defiance by Cesar and just like in the Black Heralds, he continues to lament about his sufferings as a prisoner. He sighs, “Ah the four whitening walls (Stanza 1 line 2)” to express the anguish, suffering and oppression in the cell without a liberator. He says, “And you wouldn’t even cry, speak, liberator!,” this statement emphasizes his disbelief about God, similar to what he had alluded in the Black Heralds, where he expresses his hatred towards God for failing to liberate him in times of need. The pains that Vallejo experienced while in prison as written in Trilce XXVIII are well captured also in the Black Heralds where he questions himself why life had been so difficult for him. In extension, the poem Spain, Let This Cup Pass from Me, Vallejo changes the tone of his previous poems the Black Herald and Trilce XXVIII and focuses on a theme that is not so much different from the latter, he talks about the effects of the violence, suppression and oppression during the Spanish civil war. However, just like in Trilce XXVIII and Black Herald, in the poem Spain, Let This Cup Pass from Me ,he continues to express anguish over the sufferings experienced during the Spanish civil war and he expresses a feeling of compassion and unity with those enlisted to bring freedom and peace(Poetry Foundation, online).
The external structure of the poems is very elaborate. The stanzas of the poems are mainly free verses as they do not have any structure that can be identified, and so are the lines in the four poems.
The forms and style of the poems however differ greatly. The poems, Black messengers and Spain, Let This Cup Pass from Me are both narrative and lyric poems as they only have a single speaker who has strong feelings towards the subject he narrates about. It is also an ode as the subject discussed is a serious one, and its length is moderate. Trilce XXVIII on the other hand is a descriptive poem as is tells a story of the speaker’s problems. It introduces the conflict, has characters who are the people he has lunch with, and has a climax. The poem, Black Stone on a White Stone, is a lyrics poem too. It is also an elegy as it mourns a person who is about to die, and it regrets the reason for his death. The poem is also a sonnet of the Petrarchan kind as is has eight lines and six lines, making a poem of fourteen lines. The first part is argumentative while the second gives a conclusion.
The nexus between poem XVIII and Spain, Let This Cup Pass from Me, is that in both poems Vallejo eludes his fears and despondency. For instance, in first stanza lines 5 &6 of Trilce XXVIII he says, “through its four corners how it snaps/apart daily shackled extremities” meaning that he felt he would never become free from his unending woes just like those who had been subjected to the civil war in the poem Spain, Let This Cup Pass from Me.
The poem Black Stone on a White Stone, is the epitome of Vallejo’s suffering and anguish, he goes ahead to predict his death, he says, “I will die in Paris with a rainstorm. perhaps on a Thursday, as today is, in autumn” (Line 1 &4). Concisely, akin to the Black Heralds and Trilce XXVIII he uses those two lines to express mental trauma and despondency, which makes him talk about his death.
In essence, Vallejo in the four poems obliquely describes the daily experiences of his life in prison and to a great extend the injustices that people endure under suppression (Robert, 2015). In the Black Stone on a White Stone, just like in the Black Heralds, Vallejo profoundly explains how he felt isolated and different, he says, “my whole journey to the ways where I am alone” to denote isolation. In addition, the title of the poem explains the kind of isolation he was in “the only black stone on a white stone”. Just like a prisoner, as described in the Black Heralds’ he felt loneliness, isolation, and suffering that could only be understood by him (Kevin, 20-34). Vallejo in the poem Black Stone on a White Stone, feels that the society had hated him to the degree that even when he did not pay evil for evil “they kept hitting him (Stanza 3 line 3)” hard. This desperation expressed in Black Stone on a White Stone is also described in stanza 2 of Trilce XXVIII when he says,
“Loving keeper of innumerable keys,if you were here, if you could seeunto what hour these walls are four (Stanza 2, lines 1,2 &3)”
He is afraid that despite his anguish no one would come to his rescue (Poetry Foundation, online). However, as opposed to the Black Heralds, where he shown no regard to the power of Almighty, in the poem, Trilce XXVIII, he pleads with the “Loving keeper of innumerable keys (stanza 2 line 1)”, referring to God to save him from his unending anguish.
The topics of the four poems are chosen deliberately to show their meanings. For example, the Black messenger conveys the message that there is bad news being given. Trilce XXVIII’s topic shows that there are other poems that come before it, and possibly others coming after this poem. The topic, Spain, Let This Cup Pass from Me references the words of Jesus when he was about to die, and was requesting for the inevitable suffering to end. In the same way, this poem shows how they had to suffer for the bigger prize of freedom. In the title of Black Stone on a White Stone, Vallejo uses the Peruvian method of using stones to signify something and convey a message (Cesar Vallejo, 2007). A white stone signifies a good positive thing, while the black one signifies a bad thing.
In conclusion, the four poems have similar themes in their internal structures (Kevin, 20-34). The themes of suffering, despondency and anguish are evident. In particular, Spain, Let This Cup Pass from Me, the indigenous Peruvians were subjected to pain, abuse and exploitation during the civil war. In The Black Heralds, the speaker’s suffers too much that he gets frustrated and cannot understand everything that is happening and is despairing. In Trilce XXVIII, he talks about deep loss that leaves him desperate and missing love. In Black Stone on a White Stone, the speaker takes about being killed by a mob (Poetry Foundation, online).
Works cited
Cesar Vallejo. The complete Poetry: A Bilingual Edition. University of California Press. 2007. Print.
Kevin Stein. Poetry’s Afterlife: Verse in the Digital Age. 2010. Print.
Poetry Foundation. Cesar Vallejo. Retrieved 29/02/2016. 2015. Web.
Robert K.Britton. The poetic and Real Worlds of Cesar Vallejo (1892-1938): A Strugles between Art and Politics. Sussex Academic Press. 2015. Print.
