Bécquer, the pseudonym of Gustavo Adolfo Domínguez Bastida, was born in Seville, but lived his brief adult life in Madrid. His rimas, not published together until after his death (1871), are short, musical, often dreamlike meditations in simple diction on love and on poetry itself. They are still popular in the Spanish-speaking world, and several major poets, such as Darío and Alberti, have expressed their debt to him. The only poem we have space to include from the Spanish Romantic movement, which arrived late and remained only briefly, is this delicate little love poem.