SOURCE: Alfonsina Storni, Boston: Twayne, 1979, pp. 51–85.

In the following essay, Jones examines Storni's poetry in terms of literary modernism.

Any attempt to classify Alfonsina's poetry by applying to it the usual literary labels is bound to fail. This may very well be true of all poetry, but suffice it to say that, in Alfonsina's case, she never consciously allied herself with any particular literary philosophy. She was interested in studying the goals put forward by the various artistic schools both inside and outside Argentina, but her approach was eclectic. Her early work reflects a predominantly Romantic tone, with its autobiographical elements, its lyrical and sometimes sentimental themes, and its overall tendency to portray the sensitive, rebellious, misunderstood poet standing alone against the world. Yet even in her first volume there is considerable influence from the Hispanic Modernist movement, which developed primarily as a reaction against the worn-out imagery...