Romances + El Rey Moro

Fronterizos

Historical romances written by Christians from a Muslim point of view

Media Res

Beginning in the middle/immediately after the action takes place

(Después de la batalla de Alahma) (required)

Dialogo

Dialogue (optional)

Narration of a Dramatic Moment

The fourth característica temáticas de un romance (required)

La Musicalidad

A melody, flow, or rhythm

Can’t tell in a fragment (required)

Los cinco sentidos

The five senses and lots of description (required)

Libre extensión

The poem can be any length (Can’t tell in fragment)

Arte Menor

Versos Octosílabos (required)

Rima asonante en los versos pares

Even lines must have vowels rhyming (required)

Estribillo

“Ay de mi Alahma” (optional)

Los Abencerrajes

A powerful family in Granada in the 15th century

Who was the rey moro?

Boabdil

What did Boabdil do to the Abencerrajes?

Killed a bunch of the Abencerrajes because he thought they were disloyal.

Alahma

A town in Granada that was taken by the Christians prior to the events of the poem

El Zacatín

A street of vendors in Granada

Alahmbra

The final Arabic palace to fall to the Christians

Anáfora

Repetition of words/ phrases

“¿Para qué nos llamas, rey, / para qué es esta llamada?”

Metonomia

Using a description to represent something else

“Un hombre de barba crecida y cana” is an old man, even though it doesn’t say that.

Apóstrofe

Addressing a person who isn’t necessarily there with passion

“Bien se te emplea, buen rey”

Estribillo

A repeated line

“Ay, de mi Alahma”

Aliteración

Alliteration; repeating first letters of a series of words/lines

Metáfora

Metaphor

“Mataste los Abencerrajes / que eran la flor de Granada”

Paralelismo

Parallelism; repeating words to create structural similarity

Anadiplosis

Repetition of one or a few words at the end of one line and the beginning of another

“Bien se te emplea, buen rey,

buen rey, bien se te empleara.”

Políptoton

Using the same word with different forms

“No me mires, que miran

que nos miramos;

miremos la manera

de no mirarnos.

No nos miremos

y, cuando no nos miren,

nos miraremos.” 

Polifonía

Story is told from multiple perspectives in a single poem

Un Verso

A line in a poem

Una Estrofa

A stanza in a poem

Verso Llano

A line that stresses the second to last syllable; ends in a vowel, n, or s

Verso Agudo

A line that stresses the final syllable/ ends in a one syllable word; ends in a consonant that’s not n or s

Verso Esdrújulo

A line that stresses any syllable thats not the last or second to last

Diptongos/Triptongos

When a strong vowel (a, e, o) is combined with a weak value, they are pronounced as one syllable.

(puerta, aire)

Can be pronounced as 2 syllables if the weak syllable has an accent.

(veía, continúa)

Sinalefa

The end of one word has the same sound as the beginning of the next

“el Alhambra estuvo” would be pronounced

Los tornadizos

Muslims who pretended to be Christian to avoid persecution; often continued to secretly practice their own religion