SOURCE: "Rubén Darío: Classic Poet," translated by David Flory, in Rubén Darío Centennial Studies, edited by Miguel González-Gerth and George D. Schade, Institute of Latin American Studies, 1970, pp. 85-96.

In the following excerpt, Torres-Rioseco explains elements of classical aesthetics in Darío's poetry and highlights the poet's emphasis of simplicity and clarity.

From his earliest youth, Rubén Darío acquired the aura of an exceptional poet, one already marked out for a singular and prodigious destiny. At first the indications were vague and superficial, as for example his precocious anti-clericalism, his infantile Voltairianism and his predilection for scientific problems. Later on we have evidence of his extraordinary facility for versification in his thirty-page poems, his improvisations on outlandish subjects and his versified journalism. His prolific output attracted attention even in his native tropics, where indeed it became confused with poetic genius. This...