El Ritmo is a collection of letters from Salvador Rueda to the Catalonian critic Jose Yxart, first published in Madrid in 1894. Critics now recognize the importance of the so-called premodernists (Salvador Rueta, Ricardo Gil, Manuel Reina) for the understanding of the evolution of contemporary Spanish poetry. El Ritmo sets out, in a sometimes ironical tone, a panorama of the state of poetry in Spanish at the end of the 19th century. The publication of this edition should allow the reader to appreciate how the first moderns approached the need to close one historical and cultural chapter and open another, accepting new influences and working hand in hand as equals with Latin American writers.