This dissertation, entitled 'Between Tradition and Literary Insurrection: The Poetry of Carlos Martinez Rivas,' is an exploration into the poetry of Nicaraguan writer Carlos Martinez Rivas (1924-1998) and concentrates on three specific moments of his work: El paraiso recobrado (1943). 'Memoria para el Ano Viento Inconstante' (1953), and some poems written for the most part after 1960. As I study the literary influences of his first long poem (published when Martinez Rivas was still in high school), I argue that the beloved woman of the poem is not Yadira Jimenez, to whom the verses are addressed, but rather the text itself and the concepts of beauty and perfection that the young poet desires to achieve. In the second chapter, I analyze Martinez Rivas' use of satire, parody, and irony. For the writer of 'Memoria para el Ano Viento Inconstante,' excellence in art is the result of sacrifice and solitude, which have very little to do with the manipulation and institutionalization of culture. My last chapter studies the influence of Martinez Rivas on specific pieces of Nicaraguan poetry produced over the last 60 years. I argue that Martinez Rivas writes in opposition to the poetry promoted around the Sandinista Revolution (1979), and that he serves as a connection or liaison between the poetry of the 21st Century and that of the first half of the 20 th Century. These three moments demonstrate that Martinez Rivas both incorporates and transcends tradition to create poetry that is, in many ways, prophetic