The poetry of Sara de Ibáñez has been praised throughout the Hispanic world since its first appearance in 1940. Her poems appear in many anthologies, and she has been acclaimed by such giants of Hispanic letters as the Nobel laureates Pablo Neruda of Chile, Gabriela Mistral of Chile, Octavio Paz of Mexico, and Vicente Aleixandre of Spain. Paradoxically, she was for years relatively unknown, even among specialists of Hispanic literature. In "Baroque/Avant-Garde/Neo-Baroque: The Poetry of Sara de Ibáñez" (1988) Marci Bess Sternheim postulates two reasons for this unfamiliarity. First of all, Sternheim explains that "Ibáñez is considered a 'poet's poet': her rigorous baroque form and syntax coupled with her allusive symbolist- and surrealist-inspired imagery are so demanding that they defy the attempts of all but the most serious readers--students of esoteric poetry or poets themselves"; most view Ibá...