¹ The first incomplete edition (Madrid: La Lectura) of Platero y Yo was published in 1914; the first complete edition (Madrid: Calleja) was published in 1917. To the texts of the first edition were added two chapters written in the intervening years: “Platero de Carton,” Ch. cxxxvii (Madrid, 1915), and “A Platero en su tierra,” Ch. cxxxviii (Moguer, 1916).

² Good bibliographies of Jimenez's works, which contain a sizable collection of critical commentary devoted to Platero, can be found in Graciela Palau de Nemes' Vida y Obra de Juan Ramón Jimenez (Madrid, 1957) and in Donald F. Fogelquist's “Juan Ramón Jiménez: Vida y Obra, Bibliografía, Antolojía” in REM, 'xxiv“ (1958), 105–195.

³ Ricardo Gullón, “Plenitudes de Juan Ramón Jiménez,” Hispania, 'xl“ (Sept. 1957), 270–286. The following articles are contained in La Torre, v (1957), Nos. 19–20, dedicated to Jimenez: Julian Marías, ”Platero y Yo o la Soledad Comunicada,“ pp. 381–395; Nilita Vientós Gaston, ”Platero y Yo,“ pp. 397–403.

⁴ AH quotations will refer to the fifth Aguilar edition (Madrid, 1960) of Platero y Yo.

⁵ Ricardo Gullón, “Platero, revivido,” PSA, 'xvi“ (1960), 267; Julian Marias, ”Platero y Yo o la Soledad Comunicada,“ pp. 383–385; Michael Predmore, La Obra en Prosa de Juan Ramón Jimenez (Madrid, 1966), pp. 114–120.

⁶ All instances of violence and suffering from this point on can be accounted for, I think, according to the categories already mentioned. I could find only three more instances in which blood is mentioned with reference to human or animal wounds, twice in a metaphorical sense (pp. 275 and 306) and a third time in a passage describing Platero, bleeding from being bitten by horseflies (p. 171). The latter example also conforms to the above categories of accountable injuries, i.e., donkeys and horses are habitually tormented by flies on hot summer days in Moguer. This is quite different from accidentally stepping on a thorn or having a gun explode in one's face.

⁷ See, e.g., pp. 54, 76, 86, 133, 147, 180, 219. The occurrence of such imagery appropriately diminishes after the season of spring, except for the final occurrences discussed above.

⁸ It is interesting to note that this was the final chapter of the work when completed in 1914.

⁹ Ricardo Gullón, in “Platero, revivido” (pp. 9–40, 127–156, 246–290), makes available for us numerous variant readings that Jiménez added, by way of correction and revision, to several earlier editions of Platero (the edition of Espasa-Calpe Argentina, Buenos Aires, 1937, and that of Losada, Buenos Aires, 1942). In addition, there are revisions to be found in a volume of Verso y Prosa para Niños (La Habana, 1937) plus a quantity of unpublished material, both manuscript and typewritten. All the material is contained in the Jiménez archives of the Univ. of Puerto Rico.

¹⁰ Gullón, “Platero, revivido,” p. 13.

¹¹ In the variant readings Gullón offers us, I was able to find three different corrections among the first five chapters that reveal the author's intent to make explicit the temporal sequence of his work. It should be pointed out that the first mention of a month in published editions of Platero occurs in Ch. v when we read “el camino asaeteado de estrellas de marzo” (p. 26). For the projected revised edition, the author has made the following amendments: the first line of Ch. ii is amended to read (added words in italics) : “La noche cae, marzo aún, brumosa ya y morada” (“Platero, revivido,” p. 34); the first line of Ch. iii is amended to read : “Cuando, en el crepúsculo internal del pueblo” (p. 283) ; the second sentence of Ch. v is amended to read : “En los prados soñolientos de la cruda primavera se ven” (p. 35). Thus, the author in later corrections chooses to announce the month of March already in the second chapter. We note that it is a March “invernal” in Ch. iii, but by Ch. v (still March) it becomes “la cruda primavera.” The transitional nature of the season (late winter-early spring) as the book opens is thereby made explicit.

¹² For a fascinating discussion of seasonal rites, the reader is referred to the appropriate sections of James G. Frazer's The Golden Bough, abridged ed. (New York, 1963)—see particularly “The Killing of the Tree-Spirit,” pp. 344–376—and Mircea Eliade's Patterns in Comparative Religion, trans. Rosemary Sheed (Cleveland, Ohio, 1966)—-see “Vegetation: Rites and Symbols of Regeneration,” pp. 265–326. A good concrete example of a seasonal ceremony in Platero occurs in Ch. viii, “Judas,” which offers a striking parallel to the ceremony of “Burying the Carnaval” (see Frazer, pp. 350–357). Indeed, the ritual elements of seasonal ceremonies are fascinating and so numerous in Platero that it seems prudent not to continue the investigation here.

¹³ The possibilities for close stylistic analysis in Platero seem almost inexhaustible, particularly on the level of sound, intonation, and syntax. Compare, e.g., the following two passages, the first taken from “La Primavera,” Ch. 'xxv“, the second from ”Corpus,“ Ch. lvi. Each one is expressive of the feeling and rhythm of a seasonal festival. The first one depicts the natural springtime celebration of birds, the second, a formal, religious ceremony of man that inaugurates summer:

“Salgo al huerto y canto gracias al Dios del día azul. !Libre concierto de picos, frescos y sin fin! La golondrina riza, caprichosa, su gorjeo en el pozo; silba el mirlo sobre la naranja caída; de fuego, la oropéndola charla, de chaparro en chaparro; el chamariz ríe larga y menudamente en la cima del eucalipto, y, en el pino grande, los gorriones discuten desa-foradamente” (pp. 74–76).

“En la tarde que cae, se alza, limpio, el latín andaluz de los salmos. El sol, ya rosa, quiebra su rayo bajo, que viene por la calle del Rio, en la cargazón de oro viejo de las dalmáticas y las capas pluviales. Arriba, en derredor de la torre escarlata, sobre el ópalo terso de la hora serena de junio, las palomas tejen sus altas guirnaldas de nieve encendida . . .” (p. 150).

¹⁴ Lest the above mention of a religious ceremony be misleading, it should be made clear that nature's festivals are always preferred over man's senseless ceremonies. In Ch. lxiii, “Gorriones,” e.g., man's practice of going to church on Sunday is contrasted to the birds' freedom to celebrate life whenever they choose: !Benditos pájaros sin fiesta fija! . . . Contentos, sin fatales obligaciones, sin esos olimpos ni esos avernos que extasian o que amedrentan a los pobres hombres esclavos, sin más moral que la suya ni más Dios que lo azul, son mis hermanos, mis dulces hermanos“ (pp. 166–168).

¹⁵ It is interesting to note that the moods and activities of the night and the moon are also more conspicuous in the season of autumn. See particularly: “El ‘Canto’ del Grillo,” Ch. lxix, “Nocturno,” Ch. lxxiii, “Los Fuegos,” Ch. lxxvi, “La Luna,” Ch. lxxviii, “El Pastor,” Ch. lxxxii, “El Canario Se Muere,” Ch. lxxxiii, “El Eco,” Ch. ci, “Susto,” Ch. cii, “Camino,” Ch. civ, and “Idilio de Noviembre,” Ch. cvii.

¹⁶ These instructions also reveal the poet's own intense longing for transcendence, his own passionate desire to unite with the objective world of natural beauty, expressed repeatedly throughout the work. The following are only a few examples:

“Platero, no sé si entenderás o no lo que te digo, pero ese niño tiene en su mano mi alma” (p. 116).

“Platero, si algún dia me echo a este pozo, no será por matarme, créelo, sino por coger más pronto las estrellas” (p. 140).

“. . . tuerce la esquina un hombre solitario. . . ¿Yo? No; yo, en la fragante penumbra celeste, móvil y dorada, que hacen la luna, las lilas, la brisa y la sombra, escucho mi hondo corazón sin par. . .” (p. 191).

“ Que fuerza de adentro me eleva, cual si fuese yo una torre de piedra tosca con remate de plata libre! [Mira cuánta estrellal . . . ! Platero, Platero! !Diera yo toda mi vida y anhelara que tú quisieras dar la tuya por la pureza de esta alta noche de enero, sola, clara y dura!” (pp. 295–297).

¹⁷ See particularly: “Noche Pura,” Ch.. cxx, “La Corona de Perejil,” Ch. cxxi, “Los Reyes Magos,” Ch. cxxii, “La Torre,” Ch. cxxix, and “Madrigal,” Ch. cxxxi.

¹⁸ Even in the middle of summer with life in its fullness, the poet is fascinated by and draws our attention to the viciousness of a cockfight in “Los Gallos,” Ch. lviii.

¹⁹ There are only six clear examples in autumn in which violence and misery are treated at length: “Sarito,” Ch. lxxiv, “La Niña Chica,” Ch. lxxxi, “Pinito,” Ch. xciv, “El Rio,” Ch. xcv, and “La Yegua Blanca,” Ch. cviii. Possibly “Los Toros,” Ch. lxx, might be added to these examples.

²⁰ “Platero se amedrenta” Ch. ii (p. 20); “Platero y yo entramos, ateridos” Ch. iii (p. 21); “Platero, no sé si con su miedo o con el mio” Ch. v (p. 26); “!No te asustes, hombre! Qaé te pasa?” Ch. viii (p. 33).

²¹ How different in character are the children at the very end of the work from the ragged urchins at the very beginning.