St. John of the Cross’ strange mystical birds have baffled readers for a long time because they seem foreign in the context of the European literary canon. This is not surprising, given the poet’s usual artistic mysteries, which make for a difficult reading. Dámaso Alonso warns the reader: St. John’s poetry is “mysterious like an aerolite”. After exploring St. John’s literary enigmas for decades, it is not difficult to concur with the Spanish critic. I have carried out a comparative study of the mystical symbolism the Spanish poet seems to share with Sufism (see (López-Baralt 2000), and also of his ornithological allegories (see (López-Baralt 1985/1989 y 2012), which I explore in depth and actualize here, trying to understand their elusive origins.
Keywords:
St. John of the Cross, Sufism, mystical symbolism, mystical ornithology, solitary bird, Philomena, bulbul
López-Baralt, L. (2019). The strange mystic ornithology of St John of the Cross: the philomena and the solitary bird. Revista Chilena De Literatura, (99), pp. 77–99. Retrieved from https://revistas.uchile.cl/index.php/RCL/article/view/53015
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