This book of poems was not published until 1913 by Gonzálo de Quesada Aróstegui. Probably written between 1878 and 1882, in these verses Martí succeeded in breaking the usual patterns of Cuban poetry with hendecasyllabic verses without consonance, showing him at the summit of his originality as a poet of original expression. Free Verse emphasizes the renewing drive responsible for the ultimate triumph of Modernism.
These are my poems. They are what they are. I have not borrowed them from anyone. As long as I could not lock up my visions whole, and in a form worthy of them, I allowed them to fly. Oh, how many golden friends have never returned! But poetry has its honesty, and I have always wanted to be honest. I also know how to trim my poems, but I do not wish to do so. Just as every man has his own physiognomy, every inspiration has its own language. I love the difficult sonorities, the sculptural line: vibrant as porcelain, swift as a bird, scalding and flowing as a tongue of lava. A poem should be like a shining sword that leaves the spectators with memories of a warrior bound for the heavens; when he sheathes his sword in the sun, it breaks into wings.
These poems — my warriors — are cut out of my very entrails. Not one of them has left my mind artfully or warmed over, but rather as tears leave the eyes and blood bubbles out of a wound.
I have not concocted my poems from any others, but tapped them from within myself. They are not written with academic ink, but with my own blood. That which I am giving you to see here, I have seen before, indeed I have, and I have seen much more that escaped before giving me time to set down their features. I myself am to blame for the strange ness, singularity, haste, rage, and piling up of my visions, for I have made them appear before me as I set them down. I found some garments in tatters, others whole, and made use of their colors. I know they are not fashionable. I love sincerity and the difficult sonorities even if they seem brutal.
I already know everything they have to say, and for myself consider it answered. I have wanted to be loyal, and if I have sinned I am not ashamed.