Amarilis

Amarilis was a pseudonymous poet from Peru in the early 17th century. She is known from a single poem in the form of an epístola, or epistle, titled Amarilis a Belardo. The title, which translates to Amarilis to Belardo in English, refers to Amarilis' polite manner of addressing "Belardo," whose true identity is known as Spanish playwright Lope de Vega. De Vega published this epistle in La Filomena, which is a book of lyrical poems and epic poetry including both Amarilis' epistle and his response to it. While Lope de Vega defends himself from libel in the second half of La Filomena, the book can also be regarded as a look into the playwright's more personal life. Amarilis a Belardo is lengthy and conveys Amarilis' feelings of isolation due to her responsibilities as a nun, as well as her frustrations from being in Peru instead of Spain.

Life and identity While Amarilis wrote "Amarilis a Belardo" in 1619, little is known about her date of birth. All that could be said about her age range was that she wrote her epistle as a young woman.

Everything else that could be gathered about her life is solely sourced from her poem. Amarilis claims to have been descended from two individuals close to conquistador Francisco Pizarro. After being orphaned as a toddler or small child, Amarilis was sent with her younger sister, Belisa, to live with her aunt. Amarilis describes both herself and her younger sister as having been gifted children in their own ways. Their relationship was close, and Amarilis further explains that her sister became famous and married un joven venturoso, or a fortunate young man. Amarilis was unmarried at the time her epistle was written, telling Lope de Vega that she was beautiful enough to marry well, Any further information about Amarilis would be pure conjecture. It was written in canzone form, a traditionally Italian categorization usually given to poems that consist of stanzas with 10-12-syllable lines without a refrain, but this particular work has roughly 18 lines in each of its stanzas. Amarilis does not keep to one specific rhyme scheme, but does ensure that different line endings within a given stanza do rhyme; for example, one part of a stanza may have the ABCA rhyme scheme, while another may have a rhyming couplet. She was influenced by Italian theories about poetry, and also used her knowledge on the subject of Latin poets, especially of Virgil, to create her work. In fact, the speculation about Amarilis' identity is one of the most debated questions about de Vega's whole career.