Francisco Medrano (poet) facts for kids
Francisco Medrano was a Spanish poet who wrote beautiful poems in the late 1500s and early 1600s. He is known for his lyric poetry, which expresses strong feelings and emotions. It's important not to confuse him with Sebastian Francisco de Medrano, who was another poet living around the same time.
Life of Francisco Medrano
Francisco Medrano was born in the city of Seville, Spain, in 1570. When he was older, he joined a religious group called the Society of Jesus and became a priest in 1594. However, he left the order in 1602. Medrano passed away in his hometown of Seville in 1607.
His Poetry and Works
Medrano's poetry was greatly inspired by famous ancient poets like Horace and also by Torquato Tasso, an Italian poet. He mostly wrote sonnets, which are poems with 14 lines and a specific rhyme scheme.
His poems were first published in 1617 in a city called Palermo. They appeared as an extra part of a book by another poet from Seville, Pedro Venegas de Saavedra.
Many people, like the Spanish critic Adolfo de Castro, believed Medrano was one of the best Spanish poets to imitate Horace. They even compared him to the famous poet Luis de León. Medrano had a great sense of style and wrote in clear, good Spanish. His writing was free from a complicated style called "gongorism," which was popular at the time and used very fancy, often confusing, language.
One of Medrano's famous poems is "La profecia del Tajo." It is very similar to a poem with the same title by Luis de León. Both poems were inspired by an ode (a type of lyric poem) written by Horace about Mark Antony and Cleopatra. While Luis de León's poem changed a lot from Horace's original, Medrano's poem was a very close imitation, almost like a translation. You can find Medrano's poems reprinted in a collection called La biblioteca de autores españoles.
Poems Translated into English
Two of Francisco de Medrano's sonnets were translated into English by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. These two poems are titled Art and Nature and The Two Harvests.
See also
- In Spanish: Francisco de Medrano for kids
