In this study the author shows that, because of its formal complexities and peculiarities, the Soledades does indeed communicate a well-defined message, and that this message is utterly compatible with seventeenth-century Counter- Reformation philosophy. McCaw's study—an explication de texte based on the poem's literary, iconographic, and philosophical intertexts—demonstrates that the Soledades nor only communicates a worldview of metamorphosis and mutability, of material and spiritual transformation, but also promotes a code of personal conduct that is grounded in the pastoral values of modesty and humility.