"Canta el amor, espigan los donceles." Understated discourse by Porfirio Barba Jacob

Abstract

Within the poetry of Porfirio Barba Jacob, there are six pieces which we can read as the confessions of the heterodox, romantic-modernist poet, who speaks in an understated manner to refer to his amorous, homoerotic fantasies and desires for young men. The poems are sometimes explicit in their confession; at other times they are barely suggested and invite the reader’s imagination. This article analyzes these poems in light of the possibilities offered by the poet’s whispering voice, someone whom critics and biographers have defined as a homosexual poet.