Página:Darío - Eleven Poems.djvu/66

tinez Sierra, in his book Motivos; Miguel S. Oliver, article in La Vanguardia, Barcelona, 191 2. Latin-American critics: the greatest prose writer of Spanish America, the Uruguayan Jose Enrique Rodo, wrote, concerning Prosas prof anas, a pamphlet entitled Ruben Dario (Montevideo, 1899), which, although in- complete, is still unsurpassed; it has been reprinted as a preface to the Paris editions of Prosas prof anas and among the Cinco ensayos of the author (Madrid, 1916). Another interesting pamphlet, of the same title, has been published by the Brazilian Elysio de Carvalho. The Mexican Justo Sierra's preface to Peregrinaciones is also valuable. Enrique Gomez Carrillo, the versatile chroniqueur, has written many articles which may be said to repre- sent the most discriminating and least enthusiastic attitude, towards Dario, in any one of the moderns: he was, in prose, one of the earliest innovators, simul- taneously with Dario, and, knowing the poet's pro- cesses and sources, seems unable to grasp the new and individual character of the results. Rufino Blanco Fombona, of Venezuela, represents another discriminating attitude: according to him, Dario had a great influence up to 1900 or thereabouts, specially since Prosas profanas; afterwards he takes up new subjects, specially the traditions and ideals of Spain and Spanish America: in this, Blanco Fombona 1:48