SOURCE: "A Reëvaluation of Rubén Darío," in New World Literature: Tradition and Revolt in Latin America, University of California Press, 1949, pp. 120-37.

Chilean-born scholar and poet specializing in Latin American fiction and verse, Torres-Rioseco was the author of more than a dozen books about Spanish American literature, including three book-length studies of Darío. In the following excerpt, he traces the development of Darío's poetry, refuting claims that it is "superficial."

Today the thirty years that have passed since the death of Rubén Darío afford a perspective through which we may view his poetry afresh. I have always maintained that Darío is the great poet of our continent and one of the most eminent in the Spanish language. But since recent criticism of him has been increasingly adverse I should like to examine … the reasons for it.

I believe that, as...