Miguel Hernández: Poetry and Commitment in War
Social and Political Commitment in Miguel Hernández’s Poetry
In 1934, Miguel Hernández traveled to Madrid for the second time, mingling with intellectuals and decisively breaking away from the Orihuela environment. This resulted in a personal and poetic crisis, leading to contact with Pablo Neruda, Cernuda, and Alberti. In 1936, he published *El rayo que no cesa*, and became acquainted with Vicente Aleixandre, whose book *La destrucción o el amor* became his bedside book. He moved away from the pure poetry of his conservative Catholic friend, Ramón Sijé, and began his social commitment. When the Civil War erupted in 1936, his political commitment solidified. He was a strong advocate of the Republic, and in September, he enlisted in the Fifth Regiment as a volunteer.
Later, he became head of culture, taking charge of the brigade’s newspapers and organizing the library. In 1937, he moved to the southern front in Andalusia, where he used his poetry as a weapon of combat, broadcasting it through loudspeakers. He traveled to Orihuela to marry Josefina Manresa and returned to run the newspaper *Frente Sur*. At that time, he composed *Vientos del Pueblo* (1937), a collection of poems committed to the war and in solidarity with the oppressed. The role of poetry in this period is threefold:
- Exaltation: Of heroic men.
- Lamentation: For the victims of the oppressors (e.g., “El niño yuntero”, “Aceituneros”).
- Imprecation: Against cowards like Mussolini.
The tone of exaltation is dominant in *Vientos del Pueblo*. He exalts the laborers (“do not let the rich eat you”) and the farmers (“peasant, awake, for Spain it is not too late”). The poet identifies with natural forces like hurricanes and lightning, becoming a translator of the misfortunes of a nation with which he is committed and identified. In *Vientos del Pueblo*, the poet suffers with the exploited. He is also a poet-soldier, husband, and poet-soldier-husband. He feels strength in the victory of the war, inspired by the baby his wife is expecting.
In the poems with a tone of lament, such as “El niño yuntero” and “Aceituneros”, he identifies with the victims of exploitation. The tone of imprecation serves to denigrate and insult the cowardly oppressors (to imprecate is to wish evil on someone).
In the summer of 1937, after publishing *Vientos del Pueblo*, he traveled to the USSR to participate in a Soviet theater festival. His character changed after realizing that other Europeans cared little about the war in Spain. He began to become pessimistic, even when his child was just born, and he started to lose faith in humanity. He then began *El hombre acecha*, consisting of 19 poems written around the time his son died at just one year old. *El hombre acecha* is unlike *Vientos del Pueblo*. It deals with intimate reflections on death and war, and the language is different—more intimate and less rhetorical.
This tone reflects the situation in Spain (“man waits for man”), speaking of hatred, cruelty, and death. He speaks of Spain (“Spain, bull and mother Spain”).
In 1938, the poet witnessed the loss of the war and his Republican party, which was only averted by the birth of his second child. The poet was arrested at the border with Portugal in 1939 and taken to Torrijos jail. Due to a paperwork error, he was released, but he made the mistake of returning to Orihuela, where he was betrayed and arrested again. In Madrid, he was condemned to death, accused of belonging to the Communist Party. There in prison, he coincided with another author, Buero Vallejo, who created his most famous portrait. The death penalty was forgiven through the intercession of influential people who knew him. He was moved to Alicante, where he fell ill in the adult prison and died of tuberculosis.
Before his death, Miguel gave his wife a manuscript of poems, which he called Cancionero y Romancero de Ausencias. It was an unfinished book composed of 79 poems written in jail. Here, his poetry reaches maturity, torn between lyrical themes: love, death, and life. It reflects a man in pain. There is no glorification of heroes or people, only regret from prison and the death that awaits him.