SOURCE: “Alfonsina Storni's Poemas de amor: Submissive Woman, Liberated Poet,” in Journal of Spanish Studies, Vol. 8, No. 3, Winter, 1980, pp. 279–92.

In the following essay, Titiev discusses Poemas de amor, Storni's volume of prose poems. Although generally overlooked by critics, Titiev argues, this volume represents a unique development in Storni's use of form.

In 1926 Alfonsina Storni published a brief volume of sixty-seven prose poems, Poemas de amor. Critics usually ignore this book; it does not always appear in lists of the author's works and is not included in collections of her “complete” poetry. Poemas de amor is not one of Storni's better books, but it is a significant stage in her evolution as a poet, and a striking manifestation of her ambivalent feelings toward men and her relationship to them. It was also, at least as late as 1931, Storni's favorite among her first six volumes of poetry.¹ This is particularly...