Soledades

Las Soledades (Solitudes) is a poem by Luis de Góngora, composed in 1613 in silva (Spanish strophe) in hendecasyllables (lines of eleven syllables) and heptasyllables (seven syllables).

However, some critics like John Beverley propose that the "unfinished" ending can be read as a literary technique that suggests a connection with the beginning of the poem.

From the time of their composition, Soledades inspired a great debate regarding the difficulty of its language and its mythological and erudite references without an apparent didactic purpose.

It was attacked by the Count of Salinas and Juan Martínez de Jáuregui y Aguilar (who composed an Antidote against the Soledades).

Rafael Alberti would later add his own Soledad tercera (Paráfrasis incompleta)[1] The first novel of John Crowley's Aegypt series is named The Solitudes and the Góngora poem is read by the protagonist, and is referenced throughout the plot.