This article examines how Fernando de Herrera adopted in his lyrical poetry a model that he commented in Garcilaso de la Vega’s sonnet XXXIII and that he forged or at least contributed to consolidate in his Anotaciones a la poesía de Garcilaso (1580). We review what critics understand as ruins poetry in Golden Age poetry in general and in Herrera’s production in particular, after which we propose adapting Herrera’s corpus: in the first place, we propose to define it more precisely, reducing it in order to clarify what inspired Herrera, how he understood ruins poetry, and how he adapted it in different genres and stages of his career; in the second place, we propose to largen it metaphorically in order to analyze what moved Herrera to export to other contexts a system that he decisively contributed to shape.