The Poetry of Exile: Voices of Loss and Resilience
The Poetry of Exile
The list of poets who went into exile is long. It’s important to distinguish:
- The case of Antonio Machado, who died just days after leaving Spain.
- Poets of the “Generation of 14” (postmodernist, Novecento) like León Felipe and Juan Ramón Jiménez.
- Poets of the “Group of 27”. Lorca had died, but of the others, all but three were exiled. Along with all of them are poets who just began their work before the war or whose work consists entirely of exile experiences. Let us refer to these now.
Common Themes Among Exiled Poets
The theme of the lost homeland, of course, figures prominently in their poetry. At first, their poems evoke the struggle, the hopes, the defeat, with imprecations against the victors, dominated by a hopeless despair and bitter tone. Over time, such features give way to a painful nostalgia, memories, to the evocation of distant lands and the Spanish desire to return. But they also increase the cultivation of other issues, whether the eternal human concerns, and certain realities of their host land. In the realm of style, it does not seem possible to identify sufficient affinities. The dispersion of their lives explains why they follow very different paths: the conversational tone, the dense and contained word, with classic forms supported by free-form verse, a significant prolongation of the prewar avant-garde (especially surrealism, etc.).
Miguel Hernandez: A Crucial Poet of Exile
Miguel Hernandez is a crucial figure: on the one hand, his earliness and his contacts with the “Group of 27” makes Dámaso Alonso call him a “great imitator” of those poets. On the other hand, by age, he is sometimes included in the “Generation of 36” (the de Rosales, Celaya, etc.). In short, his work has exerted a decisive influence on several subsequent generations.
He was born in Orihuela (1910), to a poor family. As a child, he was a goatherd. But, driven by a thirst for knowledge, he educated himself through numerous readings. His early poetic vocation was clear: he wrote poetry since he was sixteen. In Orihuela, he participated in the literary circle headed by his friend Ramon Sijé, and met who later became his wife. In 1934 he moved to Madrid, where his work soon conquered the highest admiration. A decisive ideological evolution was his friendship with Pablo Neruda. When war broke out, he volunteered on the side of the Republic. He married during the war. Sad are his last years: his first son dies, his second son was born when the war comes to an end. But the poet is imprisoned and died of tuberculosis in the prison in Alicante at thirty-two years old (1942).
Miguel Hernandez is an exceptionally gifted poet, but one who, as one can mingle García Lorca-inspired force of more rigorous with art, the popular and technical boot wiser. With his tone caught, most human, the word seems to come straight from the heart (the heart I have bathed language).
The balance between emotion and restraint that befits his voice as distinctive are their findings in the field of metaphor.
He wrote in jail most of the Song and Ballad of absence (1938-1941). Miguel Hernandez again purified expression, inspired now leaner forms of popular poetry. So poetry reaches a new peak. Again speaks of love: love now yal son’s wife (and is again a frustrated love for the separation). Other issues include the status of prisoner and the consequences of war.
You can not visit their pages without chill.
In the same period are other poems among them the shocking Nanas onion, poem son Miguel Hernandez, with superhuman gesture, still finds the strength to seek the smile.