Literary analysis of Eternal love by Gustavo Adolfo Becquer.

Amor eterno

Podrá nublarse el sol eternamente;

Podrá secarse en un instante el mar;

Podrá romperse el eje de la tierra

Como un débil cristal.

¡Todo sucederá! Podrá la muerte

Cubrirme con su fúnebre crespón;

Pero jamás en mi podrá apagarse

La llama de tu amor.

Gustavo Adolfo Becquer

Eternal love (translation)

The sun may hide eternally

The sea may be dried for a moment.

The Earth’s Axis could crash

As a fragil crystal.

Everything will happen! I may be

Covered by the death with its funeral shroud

But the flame of your love

will never  go out. 

Narrative elements

SETTING: Romanticism, (18^th century) in the man’s house.

THEME: Could we love until the end of our lives?

PLOT: A man telling how much he loves is lover.

CHARACTERS: The narrator and his lover  

POINT OF VIEW: The atmosphere evokes romanticism, a real lover that is in love with someone, a man who is not afraid of anything because for him the most important thing is love towards his lover.  

FIGURES: Simile and Hyperbole  

Eternal love

“Eternal love” by Gustavo Adolfo Becquer is a clear example of how Romanticism era was; the last verse “But the flame of your love will never  go out.” with these sentence, it is possible to feel how much this man was in love with a woman, that for him death was not an impediment to continue loving her; death may be perceived from this part “I may be Covered by the death with its funeral shroud” and from this emerges the question: could we love until the end of our lives? Becquer shows that it is possible to feel love until that moment.

Becquer presents a romantic poem and using hyperboles he shows how something impossible may become possible due to his love, “The sun may hide eternally” he exaggerates with his love until the point of disappearing the sun, even, until the point of drying the sea as in this verse “The sea may be dried for a moment.”  He clearly shows that he would be able to do the impossible for proving his love toward her. On the other hand, he compares by using similes and in that way continues showing how big is his love: “The Earth’s Axis could crash As a fragil crystal.” It does not matter if it is the end of the world, he would continue loving his lover. When talking about characterization, the main character is the narrator that in this case he is the man telling what he would do for love, he really looks like a passionate man for his woman, also he is very romantic with all kind of abilities, on the other hand, his lover, she may be really beautiful and a woman who deserves to be loved in the way he loves her. This poem was written during the Romanticism age, it clearly shows this, due to all the passion that is evocated from it; the man is probably at home, perhaps he is really sick reading the news about that is happening around the world, the problems with nature against humans that are destroying the planet, reason why he decides to write these verses showing that despite of these problems, his love will be always the same.

At the beginning the central idea was if a person could love until the end of his/her life, Becquer shows us that this is fairly possible, there are many people who have the ability of loving so much to somebody no matter what, where, when, they would do anything for their especial person, even dying, they will be always feel more complete with this person, a best person and for this reason they want to give everything they can do (even more) to them.

Personally, I have just seen this situation in movies, in TV, but I think that even though it is difficult to find someone with the characteristics mentioned above, it is not impossible, it can exist those lovers who will feel the same for a person until the end of their lives.