Sentimientos de ausente

What it is

This is a poem titled Sentimientos de ausente ("Feelings of One Absent"), written by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. It is preserved in full in a modern digital edition of her collected poems.

Why it matters

The poem shows Sor Juana's skill as a lyric poet, using images from nature — rivers, flowers, a wounded deer, a mourning dove — to express the pain of separation from a loved one. It reflects the courtly and literary traditions of Spanish Golden Age poetry that shaped her writing in colonial Mexico.

Look closer

• Why might the poet ask to be "heard with the eyes" rather than the ears?
• What feelings does she compare to natural things like rivers and flowers?
• What does this poem suggest about who she might have been writing to, and why she might not name them directly?