Miguel Hernandez: Poetry Between Tradition and Modernity
Miguel Hernandez’s life was marked by a strong contrast between tradition and modernity, as reflected in his poetry and personal circumstances.
Early Life and Traditional Influences
During his childhood, Miguel Hernandez attended the schools of Hail Mary in his hometown, Orihuela. This, together with his work as a pastor, endowed him with strong traditional cultural baggage. The pastoral life of his childhood and the religious education he received were the focus of his early works, including some copies of his early poems, the book Expert on Moons, and the first part of The Whistle Violated. Expert on Moons is especially noticeable, where the weight of his religious background gives his poetry a rich imagery.
Transitional Period and the Influence of Neruda
In 1933, he published the book Expert on Moons, which shows the influence of the purist poetry of the 1920s. The relationship between Miguel Hernandez and Ramon Sijé deteriorated gradually until the latter’s death. Miguel Hernandez began to cultivate the sonnet, and the theme of love began to take a clear role in his work. In this final stage, Miguel Hernandez had already broken all ties with pure poetry, and his faith began to grow early and impure poetry. Neruda also influenced Miguel; the diversification of the Chilean poet overwhelmed Miguel and served to unlock the purism and Gongorism that had dragged from his first lines.
Return to Traditional Forms
From this point on, the innovative exaltation moderated in Miguel Hernández, closer to traditional compositions of nature, at least in what refers to metrical structure. His following books, Wind in Town, Man Haunts, and Romances of the Cancionero of Absences, are based on a direct poetry that recreates its oral nature, hence the employment of romance and the underground octosyllable short, which is rooted in traditional song and poetry.
The Impact of the Spanish Civil War
His two works following Wind of the People and Man Stalks are influenced by the political and social commitment that Miguel acquired during the Spanish Civil War. The first is unbridled passion, hope, and optimism; the poems are oral in nature, hence the abundant use of romance and octosyllabic as the most popular and immediate metric.
The second work, by contrast, is marked by a grim, sad, and tragic tone because of the serious consequences of war. However, with both works, he intended to influence and encourage the Republicans who were fighting on the front.
Final Stage: Introspection and Loss
In his last stage, given the intense experience of love, war, and death, Miguel Hernandez is close to the air of popular song, the mild and deep ballad.
The Songs and Ballads of Absence is his latest work and is identified with a time of great shame for the poet’s life: a civil war with a disappointing end, the death of his son, his initial condemnation to the death penalty because of his ideology, prisons, and especially his disease, the absence of his own. This will influence the poet, leading to a process of intimidation, detention in a gradual “lyrical” deprived of almost everything.