Spanish Poetry: Post-Civil War Trends and Generations
Poetry is a literary genre that offers great variety. It links with the trends produced in previous years and offsets the negative impact of the exile of many of the big names (Juan Ramón Salinas, Cernuda, Alberti), with the teaching of other poets from ’27 (G. Diego, D. Alonso, Aleixandre).
In the years before 1936, poets agreed to turn their eyes to the feeling of intimacy and commitment, abandoning avant-garde forms and pure poetry. The lyric poets of the post-war period looked to serene and classical forms of tradition, especially the sonnet, addressing themes of love, sometimes with an existential rootlessness, painful and committed. Above the diversity of tendencies and poets, we find a lyric predominantly focused on human subjects: intimacy, love, sentiment, and religion. Although it is difficult to establish consistent, meaningful data:
- In 1940, the first two major works appeared:
- From a member of the Generation of ’27, G. Diego, Los Angeles de Compostela.
- The second, from a poet of the Generation of ’36, Ridruejo, Primer libro de amor.
- In 1944, two works marked the two great lines of the time:
- D. Alonso, Hijos de la ira.
- V. Aleixandre, Sombra del Paraíso.
Generation of ’36
Some of them had already started publishing before 1936. They are often grouped around the magazines:
- “Escorial”: Claiming classical forms to express intimate love themes, singing to the land and family. Significant names: Leopoldo Panero, Ridruejo, Luis Rosales, Luis Felipe Vivanco.
- “Garcilaso”: Well, if Isaac del Peral is spiritualist, with a tendency to contemplate the timeless Castilian landscape, the default subject and neo-folk poetry. The “Garcilaso” group advocated an aesthetic of beauty and good taste, with special attention to the feeling of the landscape and love, and a return to the classical sonnet. Rafael Morales, Carlos Bousoño, José García Nieto, etc.
Key Poets and Their Works
- Gabriel Celaya: Composed more than 50 books of poetry. During the fifties, he wrote several books of poetry that are very representative of social poetry: La Ceda, Cantos Iberos, La Resistencia del Diamante, and Episodios Nacionales. This is a combative poetry, often of a narrative style, with a simple and colloquial lexicon.
- Blas de Otero: In Ángel Fieramente Humano and Redoble de Conciencia, Otero developed a torn, rough poetry, in which a distant God is silent before the pleading cries of the bereaved poet. This concern becomes an essential open social concern in his next books: Pido la Paz y la Palabra, En Castellano, which deals with Spain. They denounced the lack of freedom in Franco’s Spain. In these works, simple expression predominates, although frequent puns, irony, and symbols are used.
- José Hierro: Composed avant-garde poems during the Civil War and spent 4 years in jail. After his first books, his concerns were existential. In Quinta del 42, he shifted from games and social causes to human problems. From here, his poetry alternates between a realistic narrative style and a visionary, contemplative one.
The Committed Lyric of the 1950s
The dominant trends, with the predominance of the existential and human, become progressively more focused and committed. At the end of the 1950s, poets expressed their interest in the testimonial and social, through lyrical communication. Moreover, this poetic direction is consistent with much of the novel and theater shows of those years.
Mid-Century Generation Poets
The poets of the so-called mid-century generation share the biographical detail of not having participated in the war, since they were born between 1925-1939: Ángel González, Ángela Figuera, José Agustín Goytisolo, Carlos Barral, José Ángel Valente, Jaime Gil de Biedma, Rodríguez, and others.