DARIO, RUBEN (1867-1916), South American poet, was born at Metapa (Nicaragua), and came to Madrid in 1892. In his Prosas pro f arias (1 899) he revealed himself a symbolist ; then, throwing off every trammel, ardent in the pursuit of all that was rare and new and beautiful, he astonished the Spanish-speaking world by his Canto a la Argentina y otros Poemas Cantos de Vida y Esperanza , and Canto errante . Heedless of rules and schools, Dario followed his own path, trying the boldest innovations, especially in metre. His experiments were not always successful, nor did he succeed in founding a school, but he has left his mark on Castilian verse, infusing into it new life and enlarging its traditional forms. He writes a nervous prose in such works as Los Raros (1893), Tierras solaces and Todo al Vuelo (1912).