SOURCE: "Literary Games in the Works of Nicolás Guillén," in Perspectives on Contemporary Literature, Vol. 6, 1980, pp. 135-42.

In the essay below, Davis-Lett examines Guillén 's use of literary games, specifically, mockery of traditional poetry in his works.

Nicolás Guillén is most recognized for his Afro-Cuban poetry written during the 1930's and for his social poetry written since then. But while he has achieved fame as a black social poet, he unfortunately has not been recognized as one of the greatest humorists in Latin American literature. Since much of his humor results from a sense of play or poetic games, no true appreciation of Guillén the humorist can overlook the aspect of play or game in his poetry. The purpose of the present study is to examine these poetic games so frequent in Guillén's works.

Games and play take many forms in...