Stories and Narrative: Rubén Darío

Rubén Darío

Nicaraguan writer

Also known as: Félix Rubén García Sarmiento

Written and fact-checked by

Article History

The Cathedral-Basilica of the Assumption, in the city of León, where the poet spent his childhood. His remains are buried in this church.

Quick Facts

Pseudonym of: Félix Rubén García Sarmiento

Born: January 18, 1867, Metapa, Nicaragua

Died: February 6, 1916, León (aged 49)

Also Known As: Félix Rubén García Sarmiento

Notable Works: “Azul” “Cantos de vida y esperanza” “Prosas Profanas and Other Poems”

Rubén Darío (born January 18, 1867, Metapa, Nicaragua—died February 6, 1916, León) was an influential Nicaraguan poet, journalist, and diplomat. As a leader of the Spanish American literary movement known as Modernismo, which flourished at the end of the 19th century, he revivified and modernized poetry in Spanish on both sides of the Atlantic through his experiments with rhythm, metre, and imagery. Darío developed a highly original poetic style that founded a tradition.

Félix Rubén García Sarmiento was born in Metapa, Nicaragua. A poet, journalist, and diplomat, Darío is considered the father of Modernismo, the Spanish language literary and cultural movement that gained sway in the fin-de-siècle literary world of both Latin America and Europe.

1. What is the most famous work of Ruben Dario?

The Library of Congress holds more than 500 volumes by or about Darío, including the 1905 edition of his masterpiece, “Cantos de vida y Esperanza” (“Songs of Life and Hope.”)

2. What are some interesting facts about Ruben Dario?

Darío served as Colombian consul in Buenos Aires during the mid-1890s. In his next significant work, Prosas profanas y otros poemas (Profane Hymns and Other Poems), published in 1896, he continued the innovative style of Azul, but also incorporated ideas of the French symbolist movement.

3. What is Ruben Darios' most famous book?

Cantos de vida y esperanza

4. The three books that define Ruben Dario's production are "Azul..." (1888), "Prosas profanas y otros poemas" (1896) and "Cantos de vida y esperanza" (1905). His works before "Azul..." are considered his prehistoric literature, and the Spanish influence is quite obvious.

5. When did Rubén Darío start writing poems?

Rubén Dario was born in Nicaragua un 1867. He was raised by his grandparents and started writing poetry at the age of 12. He was soon known as the "boy poet", and contributed in different publications.

6. Where is Rubén Darío buried?

The catedral-basílica de la Asunción, in León, Nicaragua, where the poet spent his infancy. His remains are buried in this church. Darío spent his childhood in the city of León Nicaragua.

Life and work

Precocious and prolific, from the age of 14 he signed the name Rubén Darío to his poems and stories of love, heroism, and adventure, which, although imitative in form, showed a strikingly vivid imagination. In 1886 he left Nicaragua, beginning the travels that continued throughout his life. He settled for a time in Chile, where in 1888 he published his first major work, Azul (“Blue”), a collection of short stories, descriptive sketches, and verse. This volume was soon recognized in Europe and Latin America as the herald of a new era in Spanish American literature. Darío had only recently become acquainted with French Parnassian poetry, and Azul represents his attempt to apply to Spanish the tenets of that stylistic movement. In the prose works in Azul he discarded the traditional long and grammatically complex Spanish sentence structure, replacing it with simple and direct language. Both the prose and poetry in this volume are generally concerned with objective description, and both deal with exotic subjects, chiefly classical mythology, France, and Asia. As a whole, the volume exhibits Darío’s concern with “art for art’s sake,” and it reveals little interest in everyday life.

After his return to Central America in 1889 and two brief marriages (the first ended by his wife’s death and the other by separation), he left to take up an appointment in 1893 as Colombian consul in Buenos Aires, where he found the cosmopolitan atmosphere stimulating. Young writers there hailed him as their leader, and the modernist movement organized around him. Darío’s next significant work, Prosas profanas y otros poemas (1896; “Profane Hymns and Other Poems”), a collection of verse, continued the innovative stylistic trends of Azul but treated its exotic scenes and personages in a manner more symbolic than objective, for it was influenced by the contemporary French Symbolist poets.

Darío went to Europe in 1898 as a correspondent for the Buenos Aires newspaper La Nación. Based in Paris and Majorca, he traveled extensively on the European continent on journalistic and diplomatic missions. By this time, world events and his own advancing age had brought about a profound change in his outlook on life. He became vitally concerned with the world outside the realm of art: the possible threat of North American imperialism after the defeat of Spain in 1898, the solidarity of Spanish-speaking peoples, the future of Spanish America after the collapse of Spain’s empire in the New World, and the age-old problems of human existence. The collection that is generally considered to be his masterpiece, Cantos de vida y esperanza (1905; “Songs of Life and Hope”), reflects these concerns and is the culmination of his technical experimentation and his artistic resourcefulness.

On the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Darío left Europe, physically ill and on the brink of poverty. In an attempt to alleviate his financial difficulties, he began a lecture tour of North America, but he developed pneumonia in New York and died shortly after his return to his homeland.

Among the many editions of Darío’s work in Spanish is Obras completas, 2 vol. (1971), edited by A.M. Plancarte. Selected Poems, translated by Lysander Kemp (1965), contains an introduction by Octavio Paz and a tribute—originally given before the Buenos Aires Pen Club in 1933—by Federico García Lorca and Pablo Neruda.

Legacy

Tomb of Dario, sculpted by Jorge Navas Cordonero at the foot of the statue of Saint Paul

In addition to the three major collections on which his greatest fame rests, Darío wrote approximately 100 short stories and tales, several volumes of poetry and penetrating literary criticism, and the journalistic articles that appeared in La Nación and elsewhere

From the standpoint of artistic resourcefulness and technical perfection, Darío is considered by many to be one of the greatest poets who ever wrote in Spanish. Throughout his career he boldly experimented with many forms of verse, and he probably introduced more metrical innovations than any other Spanish-language poet. Darío’s poetry is notable for its remarkable musicality, grace, and sonority, and he had a masterly command of rhyme and metrical structure. His earlier anecdotal and descriptive poems treat faraway places, mythology, and other exotic subjects with a rich lyricism, while the later poems in Cantos de vida contain a pronounced philosophical note and exhibit a poignant and powerful sense of the tragic side of life.