biography
| name: |
Rioja, Francisco de
|
pronunciation:
[reeohkha]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1583?–1659)
|
| biography:
| Poet, born in Sevilla, SW Spain, he was librarian to Felipe IV, and royal chronicler of Castilla. Favoured by Olivares, Rioja accompanied him into exile, and retired to his native city when Olivares died. Like many of his contemporaries, Rioja published nothing in his lifetime. Partly on account of his experiences at court, partly through the influence of Herrera, transience, the folly of ambition, and desengaño or disillusionment with the world are important elements in his poetry. Rodrigo Caro's Canción a las ruinas de Itálica, and Andrés Fernández de Andrada's Epístola moral a Fabio, both on the theme of mutability, have been incorrectly ascribed to him. His best-known works today are perhaps his silvas, in which he employs flowers as symbols of ephemeral happiness and beauty doomed to fade (‘Al jazmín’, ‘Al clavel’, ‘A la rosa’, etc.). A certain stoicism is noticeable in his attitude towards life. The influence of Góngora may be seen in some of his sonnets, although others are more moralizing in tone, and he wrote some canciones morales, including ‘A la constancia’ and ‘A la riqueza’. The collection Poesías inéditas first appeared in 1797. |
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