"Juan del Valle y Caviedes [was one] of the brightest, most refreshing figures in the infant New World literature of the seventeenth century. [He was] impressive and [a] multi-faceted [talent], ...a biting satirist, as well as a tender lyricist, and [he] gave evidence of sincere and deeply held religious convictions. ...[He was] judged to be among the most outstanding literary figures of [his] age. [His poetry] exhibits a vitality and diversity seldom found in the often excessively ornate and obscure Baroque poetry then in vogue."