SOURCE: “The Poética: Motivation and Purpose, Dates and Circumstances of Composition of its Various Parts,” in The Poética and Apendices of Martínez de la Rosa: Their Genesis, Sources and Significance for Spanish Literary History and Criticism, Princeton University, 1941, pp. 10-32.

In the following excerpt, Shearer discusses Martínez de la Rosa's motivation for composing his defense of poetry while analyzing the aesthetic principles and nationalistic character of his Poética.

The motivation of any important literary or critical work and the circumstances and date of its composition are necessarily of great interest since these facts frequently contribute much to a fuller understanding of the author's ideology and particular point of view. The Poética of Martínez de la Rosa offers no exception to this rule. Frequently an author's own statements coupled with an abundance of historical data will leave no room for doubt in...