Literature I / Poetic Traditions II: the Sonnet and the Golden Age
Practice question · Multiple choice

The Golden Age split between culteranismo and conceptismo divided poets over difficulty. If both styles deliberately resist immediate understanding, where does their actual divergence lie?

Hints
  1. Where does Góngora place his obstacles compared to where Quevedo places his?
  2. Does the dispute concern the sonnet's external architecture or its internal method of thought?
Show the answer

A. In whether difficulty resides in poetic surface or in mental wit

Why

Góngora complicates the linguistic surface through Latinate syntax and myth, whereas Quevedo compresses wit and argument into dense concepts; neither abandons the Italian fourteen-line structure nor seeks plain vocabulary.

Read the lesson: Poetic Traditions II: the Sonnet and the Golden Age →

Practise Poetic Traditions II: the Sonnet and the Golden Age

The app has 3 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Literature I is free to start.

More questions on Poetic Traditions II: the Sonnet and the Golden Age