TEXT COMMENTARY. SONNET XXIII BY GARCILASO DE LA VEGA.

Dear Poeliteratos,

In this post, I’m sharing with you the poetic commentary on Sonnet XXIII by Garcilaso de la Vega. I hope you find it helpful.

Sincerely,

Alejandro Aguilar Bravo

P.S. The model for writing a poetic text commentary is as follows: Link

SONNET XXIII

Garcilaso de la Vega

En tanto que de rosa y de azucena

se muestra la color en vuestro gesto,

y que vuestro mirar ardiente, honesto,

con clara luz la tempestad serena;

y en tanto que el cabello, que en la vena

del oro se escogió, con vuelo presto

por el hermoso cuello blanco, enhiesto,

el viento mueve, esparce y desordena:

coged de vuestra alegre primavera

el dulce fruto antes que el tiempo airado

cubra de nieve la hermosa cumbre.

Marchitará la rosa el viento helado,

todo lo mudará la edad ligera

por no hacer mudanza en su costumbre.

We are faced with an eleven-syllable sonnet of high art and consonant rhyme, divided into two quatrains and two tercets, following the Petrarchan model. The poem belongs to the Renaissance, a 16th-century literary movement that marked a renewal of classical forms and a recovery of harmony, ideal beauty, and the imitation of Greco-Roman models. The text fits within Horatian and Petrarchan topoi, such as carpe diem, collige, virgo, rosas, and tempus fugit. Garcilaso de la Vega, a poet from Toledo, is considered the greatest exponent of Renaissance lyric poetry in the Spanish language. His work is characterized by musicality, formal balance, and delicate expression of amorous feelings.

The lyrical voice admires the youth and beauty of a lady, comparing her to flowers, gold, and snow. However, this contemplation is not merely aesthetic: the poetic voice clearly urges her to enjoy her youth before time withers it. The composition combines praise of feminine beauty with a meditation on its transience. The main theme of the poem is the fleeting nature of youth and the need to enjoy it before it vanishes. This carpe diem message is conveyed through an idealized description of feminine beauty and an exhortative ending.

Regarding the structure, the poem is divided into two parts. The quatrains focus on describing the lady’s beauty using natural elements such as flowers, gold, and wind, highlighting her face, hair, and gaze. In the tercets, a reflective shift occurs. The poet exhorts the lady to enjoy the “sweet fruit” of youth before angry time causes it to wither.

The poetic function predominates through the use of stylistic devices, rhyme, rhythm, and fixed structure. The expressive function is also evident, as the lyrical voice conveys admiration and melancholy toward ephemeral beauty. Finally, the appellative function stands out, clearly seen in the imperative "coged" (“gather”), which seeks a response from the poetic “you”.

Following the methodology outlined by Marcos Marín in El comentario lingüístico: metodología y práctica, and the approach proposed by Isabel Paraíso in Comentario de texto poético, we now address the technical analysis of the poem.

Vowel usage is prominent, particularly open vowels /a/ and /e/, which contribute to a sense of clarity, harmony, and beauty, especially in phrases like “rosa y azucena.” According to Dámaso Alonso, these open vowels are associated with light, freshness, and vitality—key Renaissance concepts. The /a/ (central, open vowel) evokes emotional openness, while /e/ (front, mid-open vowel) adds luminous musicality, enhancing the sweetness and freshness of the lady’s described features.

In contrast, the final tercet shifts toward closed vowels like /o/ and /u/, particularly in words such as "cumbre", "mudanza", and "fruto", which evoke closure, coldness, and decay. These dark, closed vowels traditionally signify the passage of time, wear, and death, reinforcing the poem’s thematic evolution from beauty to awareness of its fleeting nature.

Consonant use is also significant. The frequent appearance of the /s/ sound (alveolar, fricative, voiceless) in words like "rosa", "esparce", and "desordena" introduces a soft, whispering musicality, evoking the wind’s caress and emphasizing the described delicacy of movement. The trilled /r/ (alveolar, sonorous) in "refrena", "hermosa", and "marchitará" adds emotional intensity, marking the internal tension between vital impulse and restraint.

Other important phonemes include /d/ (dental, plosive, voiced) in “edad”, “mudanza”, “dulce”, associated with abstract ideas, highlighting the contrast between the physical and intangible. The /m/ (bilabial, nasal, voiced) in “mueve”, “marcha”, “mudará” provides deep resonance at moments of heightened emotional or reflective weight.

The poem employs eleven-syllable lines with varied stresses, lending flexibility and elegance to the cadence. The ABBA ABBA CDC DCD consonant rhyme scheme creates formal unity. Use of enjambment, such as in "el viento mueve, esparce y desordena", briefly breaks the metric structure to suggest fluidity, dynamism, and temporal continuity, mirroring the movement of hair and symbolizing the disorder caused by time.

The predominant sentence modality is exhortative, especially in the line "coged de vuestra alegre primavera", where the rising intonation and imperative form heighten the urgency and call to vital enjoyment, culminating the poem's communicative intent.

Concrete, sensory nouns such as “rosa”, “azucena”, “cumbre”, and “cabello” provide visual richness and reinforce the poem’s descriptive tone. These nouns, mostly common, concrete, and countable, belong to the semantic fields of nature and the human body, constructing a harmonious image of feminine beauty. In contrast, abstract nouns like “edad” and “tiempo” symbolize time’s passage and decay, underscoring the tension between youth and aging—core to the carpe diem theme.

The adjectives, all qualitative, serve an aesthetic and evaluative function: “hermosa cumbre”, “cuello blanco”, “mirar ardiente”. Adjectives appear both preposed and postposed, each with stylistic effects: preposition (“hermosa cumbre”) intensifies poetic charge, while postposition (“cuello blanco”) creates naturalistic imagery. The abundance of adjectives (over a dozen in just 14 lines) reflects the lyrical voice’s desire to idealize the woman, elevating her to a mythic figure.

The verbs show a clear temporal distinction that reinforces the thematic contrast. The present indicative dominates in the description: “se muestra”, “enciende”, “refrena”, “mueve”, “esparce”, lending immediacy and vitality. In the tercets, however, the future tense appears: “marchitará”, “mudará”, foreshadowing inevitable deterioration. This tense shift projects the future, intensifying the exhortative nature of the poem. The imperative “coged” establishes a direct appeal to the “you” of the poem, who is not only addressed but also seen as capable of decisive action—enjoying youth.

Possessive pronouns like “vuestro” and “vuestra” stress the second person and reinforce the speaker’s direct appeal to the lady. The definite article “el” in “el dulce fruto” adds emphasis, highlighting the uniqueness and urgency of the proposed pleasure. The use of archaic forms like “la color” reflects the Renaissance tendency to revive classical expressions.

Overall, the poem’s rich and varied morphology supports its thematic discourse, idealizing youth while underscoring its inevitable loss.

The poem is composed of complex sentences with a clear predominance of subordination (hypotaxis), which allows for refined, elaborate structures—hallmarks of the Renaissance style. One of the key subordinating connectors is “en tanto que” (“while”), introducing temporal subordinate clauses. For example, in “en tanto que de rosa y azucena / se muestra la color en vuestro gesto”, the main clause is temporally bound, highlighting a fleeting condition. This pattern repeats throughout the poem, reinforcing its bipartite structure: one part bound to the passage of time, the other reflecting on its consequences.

Long, complex sentence periods span lines 1 to 8, forming a single sentence suspended by multiple clauses and modifiers, culminating in the main verb of the second quatrain. This accumulation creates an enveloping effect, mimicking the lyrical voice’s process of contemplation.

Hyperbaton—the syntactic inversion of normal word order—is frequent, as in "el cabello, que en la vena / del oro se escogió, con vuelo presto, / por el hermoso cuello blanco, enhiesto, / el viento mueve, esparce y desordena". The altered order enhances the poem’s aesthetic and symbolic impact. The frequent use of coordinated structures, like "mueve, esparce y desordena", generates a sense of dynamism and accumulation. Altogether, the syntax is elaborate and sophisticated, serving the poem’s reflective tone and expressive depth.

The key word is “primavera” (“spring”), symbolizing youth, vital splendor, and feminine beauty at its peak. It evokes the natural cycle of life and aligns with the poem’s core carpe diem message. Related terms like “rosa”, “azucena” (delicate, short-lived flowers), “oro” (brilliant yet malleable beauty), “nieve” (snow, symbol of age and cooled passion), “viento” (agent of change), and “edad” (abstract force of decay) orbit around it.

Clear isotopies structure the text: the nature isotopy (with “rosa”, “azucena”, “viento”, “nieve”, “primavera”, “fruto”), and the time isotopy (with “edad”, “tiempo airado”, “mudanza”, “marchitará”). These semantic networks reinforce the cyclical and fleeting nature of life and highlight the essential conflict between beauty and decay. The elevated, cultured register of the vocabulary aligns with the refined tone of Renaissance poetry.

The metaphor of “rosa y azucena” represents the lady’s face, combining carnal passion (rose) with spiritual purity (lily). The personification of the wind (“mueve, esparce y desordena”) turns a natural force into a symbol of time’s disordering power. The antithesis in “enciende al corazón y lo refrena” captures the paradox of ideal Renaissance love: passion held in check by virtue. “Nieve” (snow) acts as a symbol for gray hair, a powerful image of aging.

Classical topoi are interpreted semantically: carpe diem is direct in “coged el dulce fruto”; tempus fugit appears in references to “la edad ligera” and “el viento helado”; collige, virgo, rosas is evoked in the invitation to enjoy spring before it fades. These literary commonplaces not only link the text to Greco-Roman tradition, but also amplify its universal message.

This poem belongs to a consolidated literary tradition and functions as a bridge between classical, Renaissance, and Baroque currents, engaging in intertextual dialogue that enriches its expressive and thematic depth. Garcilaso’s Sonnet XXIII is a sublime example of how the classical sonnet form can convey a profound and universal reflection on time and beauty. Each level of analysis—phonological, morphosyntactic, and lexical-semantic—reinforces the central theme: the inevitability of time and the urgency of enjoying youth before it fades. Garcilaso turns ephemeral beauty into eternity through the poetic word.