«Poetas que conocieron el secreto de la inspiración»: comparative study of The Grave by Robert Blair (1743) and Meditaciones poéticas by José Joaquín de Mora (1826)

Abstract

In 1743 Robert Blair’s poem The Grave, considered one of the pioneers of the graveyard school of the English 18th century, was published, prompting the execution of engravings by William Blake for a later version in 1808. These aroused the interest of the German publisher Rudolph Ackermann, who acquired them a few years later and offered them to José Joaquín de Mora during his exile in London to create Meditaciones poéticas. This work was published in 1826 as a commission for the Spanish-American readers and shares, in addition to the drawings, certain thematic, stylistic and religious aspects with Blair’s text. This is an issue that critics have not fully resolved and which we will address in the following paper. We will analyse both compositions and propose, simultaneously, a comparative study that reveals the adaptation of the lines and the idea of the English poem in the Spanish version.