Garcilaso de la Vega is best known for his tragic love poetry that contrasts the playful poetry of his predecessors. He seemed to progress through three distinct episodes of his life which are reflected in his works. During his Spanish period, he wrote the majority of his eight-syllable poems; during his Italian or Petrarchan period, he wrote mostly sonnets and songs; and during his Neapolitan or classicist period, he wrote his other more classical poems, including his elegies, letters, eclogues and odes. Influenced by many Italian Renaissance poets, Garcilaso adapted the eleven-syllable line to the Spanish language in his sonetos (sonnets), mostly written in the 1520s, during his Petrarchan period. Increasing the number of syllables in the verse from eight to eleven allowed for greater flexibility. In addition to the sonetos, Garcilaso helped to introduce several other types of stanzas to the Spanish language. These include the estancia, formed by eleven- and seven-syllable lines; the "lira", formed by three seven-syllable and two eleven-syllable lines; and endecasílabos sueltos, formed by unrhymed eleven-syllable lines.

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Garcilaso de la Vega: Sonnet 1

1.    Cuando me paro a contemplar mi estado,
y a ver los pasos por do me ha traído,
hallo según por do anduve perdido,
que a mayor mal pudiera haber llegado;
5.    mas cuando del camino estó olvidado
a tanto mal no sé por do he venido;
sé que me acabo, y más he yo sentido
ver acabar conmigo mi cuidado.
9.    Yo acabaré, que me entregué sin arte
a quien sabrá perderme y acabarme
si ella quisiera, y aun sabrá querello;
12.   que pues mi voluntad puede matarme,
la suya, que no es tanto de mi parte,
pudiendo, ?qué hará sino hacello?

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English Prose Translation.
When I stop to consider my state, and see the steps along which I have been brought, I find –considering the road where I got lost– I could well have come to greater misfortune.

But when I forget about the road, I don’t know how I’ve come to so much misfortune; I know that I am dying and I regret all the more seeing my suffering end along with me. 

I shall die, for I surrendered myself naively to the one who can ruin me and destroy me if she wished, and she can so wish; 

for if my love can kill me, her love –which doesn’t favour me—since it can kill me, isn’t that what it will do (i.e. by not loving me, she will kill me)?