Most critics agree that Ramón López Velarde belongs to the Vanguardista group of poets who wrote between 1918 and 1932. His early work resembled that of the Modernistas, who championed art for art's sake, but he quickly separated himself from their mainstream to follow the path of the Colombian José Asunción Silva with more human themes and a more natural expression. Even though most of his poetry revolves around love, he reacted against the excessive sentimentalism of the time. López Velarde's style is rather traditional. He favors the consonant rhyme, the sonnet, and--in his last poems--the strong use of the adjective, the metaphor, and the couplet. His ability to capture objective reality in order to make common things poetic has earned him the title of National Poet. According to Carlos Monsiváis, a contemporary Mexican author and critic, Ló...