SOURCE: Parker, Alexander A. “Introduction.” In Polyphemus and Galatea: A Study in the Interpretation of a Baroque Poem, pp. 7-89. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1977.

In the following excerpt, Parker argues that the rhyme scheme, meter, and musicality of Polifemo y Galatea are hallmarks of the Góngora's unparalleled genius and originality.

To the conclusion that Polifemo is poetry of the very highest class there still has to be added the evidence of its architectural and musical craftsmanship. No reader can fail to become aware of the parallelistic construction of its verses. The eight-line stanza is in nearly every case divided into halves by a heavy stop, and reveals a symmetrical structure in other ways also. Lines can be conceptually and syntactically paired:

bóveda de las fraguas de Vulcano, o tumba de los huesos de Tifeo 

(27-8)

There is a double pairing in

la serba, a quien le...