“When a poet paints his love for you in magnificent verse, doubt him. When he reveals it to you in prose, and bad prose at that, believe him.”

Original: Cuando un poeta te pinta en magníficos versos su amor, duda. Cuando te lo dé á conocer en prosa, y mala, cree. — With characteristic irony, Bécquer suggests that spontaneous prose may reveal genuine feeling more honestly than polished verse. · Letter II, Cartas literarias a una mujer (Spanish)

• Irony
• Love
• Poetry

“The poetry is you because that vague aspiration towards beauty which characterises it, and which in man is a faculty of intelligence, might in you be called an instinct.”

Original: La poesía eres tú, porque esa vaga aspiración á lo bello que la caracteriza, y que es una facultad de la inteligencia en el hombre, en tí pudiera decirse que es un instinto. — Beauty is presented as an instinctive impulse as much as an intellectual one. · Letter I, Cartas literarias a una mujer (Spanish)

• Beauty
• Instinct
• Poetry

“Religion is love, and because it is love, it is poetry.”

Original: La religión es amor, y, porque es amor, es poesía. — The statement completes Bécquer's imaginative equation between spiritual devotion, love and poetry. · Letter IV, Cartas literarias a una mujer (Spanish)

• Love
• Poetry
• Religion