Romance of Abenamar - Contents

Contents

The poem opens with John praising the nobility of Abenamar. Although it was written by Castilians, it portrays the Moor favorably and is sympathetic to the Moorish kingdom's fight to remain independent.

As John surveys Granada from a distance he asks Abenamar about the high castles and palaces that he can see inside. Abenamar describes some of the architectural wonders of the Moorish capital, naming in turn the Alhambra, the mosque, the Nasrid palace in the Alixares, the Generalife, and the Red Towers. After seeing Granada and hearing of its wealth, John addresses the city itself and proposes marriage to it, offering Cordoba and Seville as a dowry. However, Granada proudly refuses him, replying "Casada soy, que no viuda; el moro que a mí me tiene, muy grande bien me quería." (I am married, and no widow; the Moor whom I belong to loves me very well.)

Read more about this topic:  Romance Of Abenamar

Famous quotes containing the word contents:

    The permanence of all books is fixed by no effort friendly or hostile, but by their own specific gravity, or the intrinsic importance of their contents to the constant mind of man.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    Such as boxed
    Their feelings properly, complete to tags
    A box for dark men and a box for Other
    Would often find the contents had been scrambled.
    Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)

    Yet to speak of the whole world as metaphor
    Is still to stick to the contents of the mind
    And the desire to believe in a metaphor.
    It is to stick to the nicer knowledge of
    Belief, that what it believes in is not true.
    Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)