Key Figures in 20th Century Spanish Poetry
Antonio Machado: Poetic Thought and Works
Antonio Machado: The poetic thought of intuition lived, temporal. Sleep: The only form of knowledge. Machado dreamed it all, but his poems also dream of nature.
Love: Little eroticism; the woman appears as a dream. This refers to the lack of love, due to his sadness because of time spent.
Soledades, Galerías y otros poemas: 1903 (Soledades), Galerías added in 1907. Great influence of Verlaine. The themes are the test of time, lost youth, dreams, the problem of death, and the reactions of the poetic self to nature. It is characterized by dialogue.
Symbols:
- Afternoon: a symbol of decay.
- Water: monotonous life.
- Source: Souvenirs following recollections bring joy or sadness.
- Garden: Illusion.
- Garden: linked to the source and evening.
- Roads: Roads of life, the soul’s galleries.
Campos de Castilla: 1912. Subject: decline of Spain and the character of its inhabitants.
- Seven poems dedicated to the death of Leonor.
- Romance of the Land of Alvarogonzález.
- Issue of Cain.
- Proverbios y cantares.
- Very short poems and Parables.
Juan Ramón Jiménez: Evolution and Key Works
Juan Ramón Jiménez:
Early Works: Melancholy. Nínfeas (1900), Almas de violeta have a high aestheticism and decadence. Symbolism is evident in Arias tristes (1903). Modernism and erotic conflict are evident in Jardines lejanos and Elegías.
The Change: Changed upon returning to Madrid and meeting his wife. Melancholy becomes vital. His trip to New York brought emotional and aesthetic maturation.
Last Works:
- Estación total (1946): a theory for understanding the passage from life to death.
- Romances de Coral Gables (1948): pain of loneliness.
Federico García Lorca: Themes and Major Works
Federico García Lorca:
Main Features: Wide literary tradition fused with elements of modernity.
Themes:
- Love: heterosexual and homosexual. Linked to eroticism and sentenced to the pain of the loss of a loved one.
- Frustration: lost childhood, impossible love, sterility, death.
- Death: Linked with love and frustration.
- Excluded: especially victims of capitalism.
Romancero gitano: A collection of lyrical ballads and narrative. Bygone era of uncertainty, vagueness, and ellipses. Shows a stylized Andalusia. Gypsies are main characters, often harassed. Violence and death prevail.
Poeta en Nueva York: Influenced by surrealism and the Crack of ’29 during his trip to New York. Its protagonist is a modern city turned into a symbol of materialism. Pain and social injustice appear.
Style and Metrics: Personification and metaphor. In metrics, combines popular and learned poetry: eight-syllable verses, hendecasyllables, and Alexandrines, sometimes combined with free verse.
Rafael Alberti: Poetic Evolution
Rafael Alberti:
Poetic Evolution:
- Neopopularismo: influenced by songbooks; Marinero en tierra (1925), subject is the sea.
- Baroque: influenced by Góngora and the avant-garde.
- Surrealism: expressed anguish and despair of his spiritual crisis.
- Social and Political Commitment: poetry for the revolution, attacks on capitalism, and defending the oppressed.
- Poetry of Exile: longing for the homeland, nostalgia, and exile.
Style and Metrics: From simplicity to complexity. Tends to repetitions, parallels, sensory imaging expressions. Uses traditional forms (popular, educated) and free verse.
Luis Cernuda: Themes and Poetic Stages
Luis Cernuda:
Poetic Evolution: Its themes are love, beauty of nature, the transience of time, and forgetfulness.
- Stage 1: aesthetics of pure poetry and Renaissance poetry.
- Stage 2: works of surrealist and romantic influence.
- Stage of Exile: convey nostalgia and longing, anguish over the passing of time, memory, and consciousness of death.
Style and Metrics: Simple expression, first and third person. In early works, classical forms appear; in surrealist poems, free verse; in later poems, rather long verses, almost prose.
Un río, un amor: Shared rebellion and desire for freedom typical of the trend. Impossible love in front of a chaotic world. Expresses his loneliness. The theme of the lost paradise of childhood.
Los placeres prohibidos: Eight poems in prose with an intensification of eroticism. Claims a right to homosexual love. The passion of love appears as the only justification for existence, but is seen as unattainable, impossible.