Valle-Inclan, Poet of Sarcasm

Valle-Inclin's poetry is contained in three volumes called Aromas de Leyenda, El Pasajero and La Pipa de Kif. This versatile writer, who is well-known as the creator of characters such as Bradomin, Montenegro and Tirano Banderas, published his books of poems in several editions, always seeking to give to his three volumes a final and definitive form. In the last version, he ended by placing them all together in one volume, under the general title of Claves Liricas. The linking element that binds these three collections of poems together is purely external, however, and merely indicates that they are poems, for, actually, each volume has a distinct character of its own. Aromas de Leyenda is the earliest, and, with its predominantly pastoral tone, it reflects Valle-Inclin's first manner, such as we find in his novel Flor de Santidad and in other works which led up to the Sonatas. The second volume, El Pasajero, could be said to represent his mystic period. La Pipa de Kif, which precedes the esperpentic play, Luces de Bohemia, and the novel, Tirano Banderas, would seem to contain, rather broadly, the style which Valle-Inclan himself later defined as esperpento. The term esperpento is metaphorical and refers to certain concave and convex mir

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