Francisco de Quevedo was known throughout seventeenth-century Europe as
the author of two Spanish best-sellers, the picaresque novel El buscón,
and the satirical Sueños. Thoroughly Baroque in style, the poems share
many traits with the metaphysical poetry of Quevedo's English
contemporaries. His poetry has been a major influence on modern Spanish
and Latin American poets. This study of the poetry combines a stylistic
analysis with a philosophical interpretation in the broad sense. It is
thus an aesthetic and existential study and concentrates on the love
sonnets of 'High Style'. The poet confronts the courtly tradition with
experience, taking a stand against its ethical restrictions. By means of
irony and conceptismo, the wit displayed in his poetic conceits, Quevedo
attempts to solve the conflict between ideal love and sensual passion.
Professor Olivares also shows that the thoughts and emotions evoked by
the experience of love are inseparable from Quevedo's anguished world
vision.