Many students of Spanish literature will have encountered some of G ngora's poems. No Spanish poet is grater or more rewarding, but few are as difficult for the beginner. His style is a habit of mind: radically metaphorical, elliptical, witty, highly sensuous, transmuting the world of the sense into a world of the spirit. To read him, one has to learn these characteristic habits and perform athletic mental feats as one goes along. It would be too...