LIGHT AND SOUND AS SYMBOLS IN THREE SPANISH GOLDEN AGE POEMS AND IN DIALOGOS DE AMOR (QUEVEDO, CACOPHONY, HEBREO, LUIS DE LEON, CERVANTES)

The three poems entitled Cancion de Grisostomo, Oda III, and Amante agradecido a las lisonjas mentirosas de un sueno by Cervantes, Fray Luis, and Quevedo, respectively, as well as the prose work Dialogos de amor by Leon Hebreo readily lend themselves to a symbolic comparative/contrastive study. The Renaissance ideals of beauty, harmony, order, perfection and optimism reign supreme in the Dialogos as the fundamental theme of a return to light is developed. Filon upon loving the beautiful Sof(\u27)ia, believes that he will be ennobled to such an extent that the light of his finite understanding will be able to unite with the infinite intellect of God. The Dialogos, however, stand in complete contrast to the symbolic darkness and cacophony as well as to the Baroque pessimism and despair of Grisostomo\u27s self-pitying monologue, which immortalizes him as perhaps the most mocked shepherd of the entire pastoral genre. Quevedo\u27s sonnet further reveals a macabre meshing of the discordant noise and blackness for the predominant physical sound is the implicit death rattle heard amidst the lines of metaphysical despair, brought on by the protagonist\u27s philosophical and psychological angst. The opposite, however, is seen in the Oda a Salinas for here the first line reveals a fusing of symphony and light which ascends to create a temple of music by which the narrator\u27s soul comes to participate in the mystical experience. Here the symbolic synthesis of sound and light replaces the darkness and distortion of sound so fundamental to the sonnet by Quevedo. Geometrically speaking, if a perfect circle represents the Dialogos, then two parallel lines indicate the relationship between Marcela and Grisostomo in the Cancion. In the Oda these lines rise and fuse together in an architectonic structure of harmony, while in the sonnet there is only a coming together of a clacking skeleton and one which is not-yet-made-manifest, for life really is death and a glimmer of happiness can only be found while one is asleep and dreaming of life and love