Analysis of Espergesia

Espergesía by Cesar Vallejo is taken from the collection 'Los Heraldos Negros' published in 1919. It is importance to read the poem in the context of its time, during this period Vallejo was moving in circles that held Marxist ideals, renounced religion, and embraced the notion that coherence and order of traditional poetry do not effectively communicate emotion, but that the logic of modern art is the logic of emotion. In this collection we see Vallejo begin to move away from the ideals and influences of modernism (Higgins,J) rather than using language as a tool to escape reality by romanticising it, Vallejo seeks to convey his own sense of reality, whilst he does employ modernist techniques such as religious symbolism and imagery that is connotative of beauty and art he subverts this imagery and in this way succeeds in conveying emotion in a manner much more personal and direct that lacks literary pretension and the glorification of the role of the artist (Miller, N). The poem explores Vallejo's crisis of faith and the effect this has had on his relationship with society and how it has caused him to feel in terms of his existence in the world as a consequence. The broken language is symbolic of Vallejo's broken faith and ideology, he attempts make sense of a world which to him does not make sense.

The title Espergesía in an archaic legal term signifying the passing of a sentence this then must raise the question of who is passing the sentence there are only two possibilities of who this could be, God or society. Given that Vallejo debases religion and thereby a society with religion at its foundation, it would be strange if he felt this sentence to be actually imposed upon him by either party, instead however the poem implies that life itself it a sentence. Vallejo in his clever employment of paradox, “el claustro de un silencio que habló a flor de fuego” portrays the sense of loss he feels now religion holds nothing of value for him. Also the imagery