SOURCE: Havard, Robert G. “Image and Persona in Rosalía de Castro's En las orillas del Sar.” Hispanic Review 42, no. 4 (1974): 393-411.

In the following essay, Havard examines themes of intimacy, illegitimacy, and melancholy in Castro's final collection of poetry.

Whereas Cantares gallegos (1863) is considered as Rosalía's supreme evocation of the Galician Volksgeist (a feature which continues to attract somewhat disproportionate attention), her mature works, Follas novas (1880) and particularly En las orillas del Sar (1884), represent an advancement in subjective lyricism which, in turn, indicates that her status as a poetess is much above regionalismo and in the mainstream of Spanish Post-Romanticism. A certain propensity on the part of critics to concentrate on regional characteristics in Rosalía's work, coupled with a prudish deference for female privilege, have resulted in the glossing over of those intimate and darker levels of her poetry which ultimately contain her crise de coeur...