20th-Century Spanish Poetry: From Existentialism to Surrealism
From Existentialism to Surrealism in 20th-Century Spanish Poetry
Dámaso Alonso
Dámaso Alonso was a renowned scholar, researcher, creator, and reader. His deep knowledge of Spanish literature is evident in his essays, including The Poetic Language of Góngora (1935) and Spanish Poetry (1950), which focuses on Renaissance poets like Garcilaso, Fray Luis de León, and St. John of the Cross, as well as Baroque poets such as Lope, Quevedo, and Góngora.
His first book, Pure Poems and Short Poems of the City (1921), influenced Machado, Juan Ramón Jiménez, and the movement of pure poetry. His most notable works address the Spanish Civil War, particularly Children of Wrath (1944), a powerful example of existential poetry expressing anxiety, pain, and anguish. One of the most striking poems from this collection is Insomnia.
Poets of Surrealist Influence
Neopopularism
Neopopularism is a literary movement that draws on popular elements of poetry from oral traditions and incorporates them into modern poetry.
Federico García Lorca
Among Lorca’s most impressive works are the Gypsy Ballads (1928), which recounts the tragic tale of Antoñito el Camborio, and Poem of the Deep Song (1921), which showcases oral poetry, flamenco, and folklore.
Poet in New York, published posthumously in 1940, reflects Lorca’s surrealist leanings and critiques social injustice and dehumanization. Lorca’s theatrical works span various styles and genres, from surrealist plays like Thus Five Years Pass to historical dramas like Mariana Pineda and sentimental dramas like Doña Rosita the Spinster.
His best-known plays, Blood Wedding (1933), Yerma (1934), and The House of Bernarda Alba (1936), are set in rural Spain and explore the theme of frustration experienced by individuals forced to suppress their feelings and aspirations due to social conventions. These plays blend popular elements with lyrical language.
Rafael Alberti
Alberti’s life experiences are reflected in his works. Sailor Ashore (1925), his first book, evokes the popular traditions of his native Andalusia. From 1927, the influence of surrealism and Góngora becomes apparent in works like Concerning the Angels (1929).
During the Spanish Civil War, From One Moment to Another (1937) expresses his grief over the war’s barbarity and his political commitment to denouncing injustice. His later works, such as Returns of Living Afar (1952), written in exile, express his longing for his youth and homeland.
Luis Cernuda
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He conceived his work as a unitary whole and grouped his books under one title: The reality and desire. There are two major features which make the whole work of the poet:
– The presence of a central theme in all his books: the clash between the feeling of love (desire), source of freedom for the poet, and the limitations imposed by society (reality), which frustrate the individual. Every work revolves around this conflict.
– The influence of Romanticism, we see in several features: the theme of frustration with the limitations of society, that prevents an individual to freely express their feelings and be himself, the passionate and rebellious tone of the poems, metrical freedom, References to Romantic poets.
Among the books The reality and desire, are especially relevant Forbidden Pleasures (express their feelings of love and longing to explain them freely, 1931) and Donde habite el olvido (1933), showing a clear influence of surrealism. By 1937 begin to be reflected in the verses of Cernuda their social and political ideas, always progressive and even revolutionary. In the works written in exile (Desolation of the Chimera-1962) the poet expresses his bitterness at the distant homeland and lost.
Vicente Aleixandre:
During his career he appreciated the evolution from avant-garde poetry to a more critical to reach maturity with matters much more bitter and intimate.
In the first stage, the poet writes distinctly surreal books, most notably The Destruction or Love (1935). In a second stage, which could be defined as social poetry, the most important work is Historia del corazon (1954). His mature poetry adopts a bitter tone and focuses on topics such as sadness for lost youth (Poetry of the consummation -1968).