MARAGALL I GORINA, JOAN

MARAGALL I GORINA, JOAN. - Catalan poet, b. in Barcelona on 10 Oct. 1860, d. there on 20 Dec. 1911. He is one of the leading figures of the Catalan Renaissance.

The fruit of his classical culture is the tragedy *Naucíaca*; an admirer of Goethe, in the poem *El Comte Arnau*, drawn from an old legend, he recalls in some respects *Faust*. Conceiving poetry romantically as a *divi barbosseig* (“divine stammering”), he sought to express himself in essential form, not without concessions to his musical impulse and to popular forms (La Sardana). In *Cant espiritual* he confesses to God his fear of death and his attachment to the earthly world; then his religious thought becomes more felt and profound: his is the Christian invocation: *“sia l'amor muta majore naixencal.”*

BIBL.: Edizione: *Obres completes d'en J. M.*, Barcelona 1912 (vol. I contains an essay by G. M. Capdevila). Studi: M. S. Oliver, *M. publicista*, ibid. 1911; J. de Arenys, *M. y su obra*, ibid. 1914; J. M. De Sucre, *J. M.*, ibid. 1921; I. L. Pagano, *Attraverso la Spagna letteraria*, Roma n.d., pp. 29-49; I. A. Bernard, *La littérature catalane contemporaine (1833-1933)*, Paris 1933, passim. Sergio Zanotti