Bécquer: “Rima LIII” & the Irreversibility of Time

You’ll be able to

Analyze anaphora and antithesis in Bécquer’s Romantic lyric
Explain how natural imagery marks the passage of time
Interpret the poem’s claim about the uniqueness of a lost love

What returns and what never will

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer’s "Rima LIII" is a Romantic meditation on time and loss. It opens with the return of the seasons: "Volverán las oscuras golondrinas / en tu balcón sus nidos a colgar" ("The dark swallows will return / to hang their nests on your balcony"). But the poem pivots on a devastating antithesis: the swallows and honeysuckle will come back, "pero aquellas… ésas… ¡no volverán!" ("but those ones… they will not return!"). Nature is cyclical; a particular past — a specific love and moment — is not. Time moves only one way.

Anaphora that builds the argument

Each stanza begins with anaphora: "Volverán…" ("They will return…"). The repetition sets up a rhythm of hope that the poem then denies, because the returning swallows are never the same swallows: "pero aquellas que el vuelo refrenaban / tu hermosura y mi dicha al contemplar… / ésas… ¡no volverán!" ("but those that checked their flight / to gaze on your beauty and my joy… / those… will not return!"). The apostrophe — the whole poem addresses a lost beloved as "tú" — makes the loss intimate and personal, not abstract.

A love beyond repetition

The final stanza turns from nature to the heart, and its claim is absolute. New love may come — words of love will sound again — "pero mudo y absorto y de rodillas, / como se adora a Dios ante su altar, / como yo te he querido…; desengáñate, / ¡así… no te querrán!" ("but silent, absorbed, and on my knees, / as one adores God before the altar, / as I have loved you…; undeceive yourself, / like that… they will not love you!"). The near-blasphemous simile — loving her "como se adora a Dios" ("as one adores God") — asserts that his love was singular and unrepeatable, like the vanished time itself.

Worked example

Analyze the structural contrast between “Volverán las oscuras golondrinas” and “pero aquellas… ¡no volverán!” How do anaphora and antithesis convey the poem’s idea of time?

1.Identify the anaphora: each stanza opens with “Volverán” (“They will return”), creating an expectation of cyclical renewal.
2.Locate the pivot “pero” (“but”), which introduces the antithesis in every stanza.
3.Read the contrast: general nature returns (swallows, honeysuckle), but "aquellas" — the specific ones tied to a shared past — "no volverán."
4.Draw the conclusion about time: seasons repeat, but a particular moment and love are irreversible, so the returning nature only sharpens the sense of what is permanently lost.

Answer: The anaphora “Volverán” promises renewal, and the antithesis on “pero… no volverán” withdraws it: nature’s cycles return, but the unique past does not. The structure enacts the poem’s vision of time as one-directional — the recurrence of the seasons becomes the very measure of an irretrievable love.

Checkpoint

The contrast between “Volverán las oscuras golondrinas” and “pero aquellas… ¡no volverán!” chiefly expresses:

Watch out

Do not read the returning swallows as consolation. Bécquer uses nature’s renewal against the speaker: the fact that the seasons come back is exactly what proves the lost love will not. The antithesis, not the imagery alone, carries the grief.

Checkpoint

In the final stanza, the speaker compares his love to how “se adora a Dios ante su altar.” This simile primarily serves to:

On the exam

For Bécquer, tie the Romantic devices to the theme of time: anaphora builds false hope, antithesis destroys it, and the closing simile makes the lost love as absolute as worship. Naming how each device advances the idea of irreversible time is the analytical move the rubric rewards.

Answer the 2 checkpoints as you read.