“The Prayer of the Atheist Formal Analysis” by C. Valero Essay

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Titulo: Miguel de Unamuno, Poeta Simbolista	Datos bibliográficos: Valero, Celma. “Miguel de Unamuno, Poeta Simbolista.” Anales de Literatura Española, núm. 15, 2002, pp. 93–107.
Pais, ciudad y luqar de consulta University of Valladolid
Resumen del texto: The article discusses the works of Miguel de Unamuno. In 1897, Unamuno faced a religious crisis, which was also related to plenty of important socio-political shifts (Valero 100). This contributed to the fact that he decided to abandon socialist visions and turned to the development of his philosophical concept. The latter involved several essentials of personalism and existentialism. It seems reasonable to state that the majority of Unamuno’s works may be considered as a significant reflection of the mentioned philosophical ideas. Unamuno perceived the essence of being as an expression of the Universum’s tragedy that is founded on the following truth – a human desires but cannot live forever (Valero 101). From the mentioned tragedy and till his latest works, all of them are pervaded with ideas regarding faith and unbelief, mortal and immortal life – there is an apparent mournful note within the author’s writings. It should be emphasized that all the author’s genre-diverse creativeness is based on the issue of personal immortality. The latter’s essence implies the last given of people’s mind – facing the tragic issue regarding immortality; the skepticism of intellect is being mixed with the desperation of a feel (Valero 102). In such a condition, the tragic meaning of life occurs, which Unamuno considers as an inevitable foundation of living. This tragic meaning of life is revealed through the idea of a particular experience of people’s lives’ finiteness. Hence, Unamuno elaborates on the concept of God as the projections of the vital thirst for existence founded on the idea of the universe’s infinity, as well as the warrantor of individual deathlessness. The aspiration to believe in immortality contemporaneously with doubting the religious essentials defined Unamuno’s willingness to advocate the related philosophical concepts (Valero 103). The latter’s core vision is the fight in the name of unrealizable ideals. The pivotal aspect of Unamuno’s works is the spiritual existence of an individual, which is founded on the aspiration to solve the discrepancies between mortality and immortality (Valero 104). The wish for personal deathlessness is conflicted by a rational conviction regarding the finiteness of life. The author gives his interpretation of the “tragic sense of life,” which is based on the implacable dualism of intellect and faith – it is mostly depicted through various symbolistic tricks.

Genre: dramatic poetry; subgenre – prayer.
Subject: prayer to God of the atheist; theme – contradiction between reason and faith.
Diction: concrete irony (cosmic); onomatopoeia style: colloquial.
Medium: narrative.
Parts: two quatrains and two tercets.
Rhythm (stress/pause) or Prosody: iambic/ trochaic/ dactylic/ anapaest/ spondee meter
Rhyme/rime: enclosed rhyme (abba) and terza rima (aba, abb).
Form: Closed; sonnet; poem; visual poetry.

Persona (mask) and point-of-view: In the poem, the atheist – and it seems that this is Unamuno’s literary “mask” – says, “I remember calming fables, so quaint, Recited when nights of sadness would insist” (Unamuno 1). Unamuno wants to claim that human consciousness appeals to God in times when it cannot find answers to questions of being when there is nothing but sorrow within us. The author claimed the individual and existential essence of philosophic truths, discrepancies between science and spiritual progression, and the revival of the person as the only path out of the impasse of this world. The pivotal aspect of the poem is the spiritual existence of an individual, which is founded on the aspiration to solve the discrepancies between mortality and immortality. It might be said that Unamuno’s poem The Prayer of the Atheist stays in line with his philosophy.

Tone: It seems clear that the author aims to give a dramatic mood to the poem. He puts an emphasis on the tragic within the scope of human existence – despite the fact that people aspire to be immortal in the religious sense, their intellects say that it is impossible. The outcome of such a contradiction the feeling of inevitable grief and sorrow, which is embodied in firm language of reason and science. The narrator apparently regrets about the fact that God does not exists, and it is not possible to live forever as it could be, “Nonexistent God, if thou were to exist, I too, perhaps, would be able to persist” (Unamuno 1).

•magery: Auditory – “Hear thou my prayer”; “calming fables” (Unamuno 1);

Figures of speech: “Hear thou my prayer, oh God who does not exist” (Unamuno 1). Here, Unamuno draws an antithesis as the idea of God with the atheistic vision that this God is nothing but fiction are encountered.

Antithesis seems to be the primary figure of speech used throughout the poem as in this writing, the essence of reason and faith are clashed.

Works Cited

Valero, Celma. “Miguel de Unamuno, Poeta Simbolista.” Anales de Literatura Española, núm. 15, 2002, pp. 93–107.

Unamuno, Miguel. “The Atheist Prayer.”entremundos.byu.edu, Web.

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