Antonio Machado’s Poetic Language: Sincerity and Essentiality
Antonio Machado’s Poetic Language
Antonio Machado’s lyricism is characterized by an *ascension* (the path of human perfection) and fidelity (honesty), giving it a tone of profound *sincerity*. Throughout his compositions, three aspects define the poet’s conception: firstly, a man of thought; ultimately, the poet sings the song of the soul. Poetry is the expression of the essential word of love and things. However, the poet remained a solitary figure, tormented by doubt, uncertainty, and anguish. The poet is always devoted to silence.
Type of Poetry
Machado’s poetry is marked by emotion, with the predominance of intuition over concept. It seeks a proper, true, honest, direct, simple, natural, almost humble expression. Key features include:
- Conciseness and depth of language
- Rejection of rhetoric
- Release of all artifice
- Relentless pursuit of direct expression (direct communication to the soul)
- Moderate use of images
- Emphasis on intimate voice
- Personal accent heavily influenced by the poetic
- Intense temporary rating of poetry based in reality
Essentiality and temporality define the nature and quality of his lyricism. All this comes to be true; we need to speak only to the heart itself. He rejects both sentimental Romanticism and Baroque aesthetic concepts. It is art made for simplicity and sobriety.
Machado was a rebel against his past *aureus* (the Golden Age), refusing to accept the new devotion of the Generation of ’27. He searched for a new road, aiming to be something else, picking up popular music. He also deeply admired Rubén Darío, striving to avoid superfluous flourishes, excessive or flashy decorations, and noisy sonorities. For Machado, poetry must be the expression of the feeling of all people, the human heart. He felt great love for the people, whom he considered the true source of poetry.
His taste for simplicity, naturalness, and direct anti-rhetorical expression is notable. What distinguishes the poet is a record of emotion halfway between lyrical expansion and interior monologue, a voice that resembles an intimate dialogue.
Poetic Language
Regarding the lexicon, it can be grouped around certain themes, feelings, or perceptions:
- The feeling of old age, melancholy, death… expressions that speak of the decline of things or human beings.
- Words that reflect anxiety, boredom, melancholy, monotony…
But not all is sad. He has a lively sensitivity to daylight in its various shades and moments. Also, tempo causes the use of specific but reduced vocabulary: adverbs of time are highly valued. The alternation between dream and reality must also be emphasized.
All attention goes to Machado’s soul, to the supernatural. Three aspects indicate a desire to express his intimate union with his surroundings:
- The humanization of things.
- The use of epithets.
- The use of exclamation.
Finally, he is very fond of archaisms. However, Machado’s vocabulary is simple, natural, intelligible, and accessible to a wide audience. Notice also Machado’s tactic of placing himself, using demonstration, before a concrete sense, the explicit presence of the author, the involvement of his potential readers, etc. In a way, we have a spoken poetry.
He employs stylistic procedures, free from abuse, that lift his poems from any impression of monotony: for example, repetition of words or expressions, and also the use of popular expressions, and even the use of symbols.
Metrics
Regarding metrics, the variety of meters and stanzas, and the mixture of tradition and modernity should be mentioned. In Machado, there are nine varieties of verses, including octosyllabic and hendecasyllable. As for the verses, he cultivated the sonnet, the quartet, and the quatrain. He picked up the romance of the folk tradition. Another strophic form is the *silva arromanzada*.