Francisco López Merino (June 6, 1904 - May 22, 1928) was an Argentine poet born in

La Plata La Plata () is the capital city of Buenos Aires province, Argentina. According to the 2022 Argentina census, census, the La Plata Partido, Partido has a population of 772,618 and its metropolitan area, the Greater La Plata, has 938,287 inhabit ...

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

, who committed suicide at the age of 23. In 1920 he published ''Horas de amor'' (''Love Hours''), a group of nine poems that later fell victims of auto-censorship. In 1921 he wrote another collection of poems entitled ''Fragmentos de un libro inconcluso'' (''Fragments of an Unfinished Book''), divided in three sections: "El espejo de mi interior" ("Mi Inner Mirror"), "Del eterno femenino" ("Of the Eternal Feminine") and "Cantos" ("Chants"). These compositions were never published. The poem "El alma se me llena de estrellas..." ("My Soul Is Fulfilled By Stars...") was already present in this group of texts and was later included in his book ''Tono menor'' (''Minor Tone'') (1923). López Merino published his poetry in different national newspapers and magazines, principally in '' El Día'' and '' El Argentino'' of

, the magazine '' Crónica Social'', of the same city, and ''

El Cronista (''Spanish language, Spanish: The Reporter'') is a daily business newspaper published in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was founded by Martin Giménez Antonio and first published as ''El Cronista Comercial'' on November 1, 1908. In 1989 the nam ...

'', a newspaper from Chascomús. In the magazine '' Valoraciones'', edited by the Faculty of Social and Legal Sciences of the

National University of La Plata The National University of La Plata (, UNLP) is a national public research university located in the city of La Plata, capital of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It has over 90,000 regular students, 10,000 teaching staff, 17 departments and 10 ...

, he wrote two bibliographic notes: the first one refers to the poetry book ''El árbol, el pájaro y la fuente'' (''The Tree, the Bird and the Fountain'') (1923), by Córdova Iturburu, and the second one deals with the poetry book ''El imaginero'' (1927), by Ricardo Molinari. In 1925 he published his book ''Las tardes'' (''The Afternoons''). The more significant national newspapers (''

La Nación ''La Nación'' () is an Argentine daily newspaper. As the country's leading conservative newspaper, ''La Nación''s main competitor is the more liberal ''Clarín (Argentine newspaper), Clarín''. It is regarded as a newspaper of record for Argen ...

'', '' La Prensa'', '' La Razón'', '' Crítica'', ''El Día'' and ''El Argentino'') praised the literary merits of the young writer. In 1928 the poet committed suicide by gunshot at his temple, in the bathroom of a bar, in La Plata, possibly due to his recent diagnosis with tuberculosis.

Legacy

Merino was memorialized in the 1928 poem, "A Francisco López Merino"'','' by Merino's close friend

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo ( ; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish literature, Spanish-language and international literatur ...

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lopez Merino, Francisco 1904 births 1928 deaths People from La Plata 20th-century Argentine poets 20th-century Argentine male writers Argentine male poets Burials at La Plata Cemetery 1928 suicides