Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer

1836–1870

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (1836–1870) was a Spanish poet and prose writer from Seville, a key figure of late Spanish Romanticism. He worked as a journalist in Madrid and lived much of his life in poverty and illness.

His Rimas, short and intimate poems on love, poetry and death, were published by friends in 1871, a year after he died of tuberculosis. Rima XXI (“¿Qué es poesía?… Poesía… eres tú”) and Rima LIII (“Volverán las oscuras golondrinas”) are among the best-known poems in Spanish; his Leyendas are classics of Spanish prose.

Best-known poems

All poems (110)

R 110