The first short work by José Martí attempts to intrigue the reader with its smattering of poetic devices such imagery, metaphors and personification, however despite these bits of colour that intermingle with the greyness of the text, I was overwhelmed with a sense of boredom.

That being said, I feel a bit torn in writing my blog this time…my first impression would be to continue with my “negativity” and be super critical of this “boring” read; and yet, while I was reading the text I will admit that I was in awe of how someone could be so descriptive about a bridge! So…instead of going on about the “tediousness” of this read, I’d like to write about a couple uses of the poetic devices I stumbled upon here.

First I want to discuss the following quotation:

“Oh! broche digno de estas dos ciudades maravilladoras! Oh! guión de hierro—de estas dos palabras del Nuevo Evangelio” (Martí, 1963 Pg. 424)

I thought this was a very interesting metaphor; using a clasp to signify that the bridge is more than just a man-made structure linking two municipalities. Martí develops the metaphor further by stating that the bridge is an iron script between the cities, and that the latter are words of the gospel message on that script. I think this metaphor explains the idea that the bridge is to be a kind of saving grace, providing new opportunities and new life to the towns’ inhabitants…whether or not they themselves would support this metaphor I am unsure of. (I didn’t understand some of the context of Martí’s writing).

The second quotation I’d like to identify is as follows:

“Los hombres pasan, graves y silenciosos a su entrada, fríos, ansiosos, blancos y lúgubres como fantasmas…” (Pg. 429)

I had to read this a couple times, because the imagery describing the “trabajadores” was so striking. I really appreciate when authors are able to describe images or scenarios so poignantly that you can picture exactly what the author is trying to portray. Martí is able to do this repeatedly throughout his work.

Well…I need to wrap this up, so I will conclude with saying that though my first impressions were quite negative in regards to Martí’s first essay, my thoughts after digesting it, have developed into more positive ones. Though I found the topic to be somewhat uninteresting, I enjoyed the style in which this text was written.