Garcilaso de la Vega (1501-1536)

Garcilaso de la Vega was a soldier born in Toledo. As a soldier Garcilaso traveled through Italy, Germany, Tunisia and France. Garcilaso's poetry generally speaks of tragic love, and he writes in the typical Spanish style of eight-syllable poems. His works include sonnets, songs, and odes. In his later years Garcilaso began, like Boscán, to also use hendecasyllable. Garcilaso also employed the estancia form, which alternated eleven and seven syllable lines, and the lira , which used three seven syllable and two eleven syllable lines.