Valencia, Guillermo
Valencia, Guillermo
(gēyār`mō välān`syä), 1873–1943, Colombian poet, one of the leaders of modernismomodernismo, movement in Spanish literature that had its beginning in Latin America. It was paramount in the last decade of the 19th cent. and the first decade of the 20th cent.
Modernismo derived from French symbolism and the Parnassian school.
..... Click the link for more information. . He came from an aristocratic family, received solid classical training, and became active politically as an orator. Valencia was a disciple of José Asunción SilvaSilva, José Asunción
, 1865–96, Colombian poet, one of the precursors of modernismo. Silva's life was shadowed by the loss of a crucial manuscript, family debt, and the death of a beloved sister.
..... Click the link for more information. . His austere and subtle verses display his considerable culture and extreme sensibility. The only collections of his work published in his lifetime are Ritos [rites] (1898) and Catay (1928). Valencia was constantly preoccupied with the fate of the poet in an indifferent world.