Gongora, Luis de, GAWNG goh rah, loo EES day (1561-1627), was the greatest poet of the Spanish Baroque period. He led a poetic movement known as gongorismo, or culteranismo. He believed the creation of beauty is an end in itself, and that art need not be concerned with ethical and spiritual values. But modern criticism shows that much of his poetry dealt with social issues. Gongora used an ornate style, featuring elaborate figures of speech, involved sentence structures, obscure terms, and references to classical mythology. His ballads and epigrams (sayings) show wit and satiric talent. But he is best known for three poems that idealize rural life: Soledades (1613), Polifemo and Galatea (1612), and Pyramus and Thisbe (1618).