In her poem, "A Glowworm Scatters Flashes," Rosalia de Castro utilizes powerful and vivid imagery to depict the intensity of the private relationship between the persona and his Deity. Throughout the poem, concrete images from architecture or building materials such as "shattered in a thousand bits" (1), "lofty marble riches" (5) and "Adam's clay" (13) are juxtaposed with the incorporeal nature of God, the "chasms" (2) that the persona cannot see and the "solitary vast vacuity" (4). The contrast between these two opposing sets of images serves to heighten the dramatic effect of the persona's sense of loss at the destruction of his personal relationship with his Deity.
Although the persona's struggle in his relationship with his Deity takes place within his mind, de Castro is able to reveal this hidden drama to the reader with active and vivid language. Instead of seeing a boring picture of the persona slumped in contemplation of his relationship with his Deity, the reader is presented with a highly dramatic spectacle of the Deity being "shattered" (1) and the persona "rush[ing]" to seek him and "groping" in the dark (3). De Castro's choice of language has thus succeeded in converting what may seem to be a passive scene into a drama that is filled with action.
The contrast between the concrete and the incorporeal, as well as the passive and the active worlds, is also related to the theme of the material versus the spiritual worlds. Based on the admonition of the angels, it is evident that the persona is caught in a conflict between the material and the spiritual realms. By worshipping the gods of the material world, the persona has alienated his Deity, thus leading to the destruction of their relationship.
Yet, unlike those who are blinded by their obsession with material goods, this persona senses the spiritual void within him. His realization of the loss within him thus represents the first awakening of his deviati...