His work approached the traditional poetry and themes in a modern way, and he is considered the founder of modern Spanish lyricism. Bécquer's influence on 20th-century poets of the Spanish language can be felt in the works of Luis Cernuda, Octavio Paz, Giannina Braschi, Antonio Machado, and Juan Ramón Jiménez. Bécquer himself was influenced – both directly and indirectly — by Cervantes, Shakespeare, Goethe, and Heinrich Heine.
