SOURCE: Montgomery, Thomas. “Interaction of Factors in Tense Choice in the Poema del Cid.” Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 68, no. 3 (July 1991): 355-69.

In the following essay, Montgomery examines the controlled, almost modern, manner in which the poet shifts tenses in the Cantar de mio Cid.

Rhyme, rhythm, syllable-count, vocalic echoes, specific conventions of phraseology, and preference or distaste for certain forms, endings, and word-combinations—and besides these primarily acoustic effects, aspect, affirmation/negation, number, context, markedness, time-reference, deixis, dialogics, preference for variety, and poetic privilege—all these dimensions and elements and undoubtedly others, in complex interaction, affect the choice of present, imperfect, and preterite tenses in the narrative portions of the Poema del Cid. These distinctive conditioning and modifying factors of the narrative voice, combined with analogous peculiarities in the use of other deictic elements such as demonstratives, contrast with the determiners of the direct discourse reported in the...