A History of 20th Century Spanish Poetry

Posted on Sep 17, 2024 in Latin

1. The Poetry of Exile

Exile was a major theme for Spanish poets of the 20th century. The list of poets who went into exile is long and distinguished, including Antonio Machado (who died just days after leaving Spain), poets of the Generation of ’14 (Moreno Villa, León Felipe, and Juan Ramón Jiménez), and poets of the Generation of ’27 (all but three were exiled, Lorca having died). Also included are poets who had just begun their work before the war or whose entire body of work centered around the theme of exile. The “lost homeland” occupies a prominent place in their verses. At first, their poems evoke the struggles, hopes, and defeat of the war, with imprecations against the victors, dominated by a desperate and bitter tone. Over time, these features give way to a painful nostalgia, memories, the evocation of distant lands, and the desire to return to Spain. But there is also an increase in the cultivation of other issues, whether the eternal human concerns or certain realities of the land that welcomed them. One notable name is Juan Gil-Albert (1904-1994). Born in Alcoy (Alicante), he was an avant-garde and surrealist poet. His first book of poems was Mysterious Presence (1936), about love sonnets, followed by Names Are Ignored (1938), which recounts his painful experience in the Spanish Civil War.

2. Poetry Written in Spain: Generation of ’36

In the early postwar years, Spanish poetry was divided into two directions: Rooted poetry, which was classical and conformist, and Uprooted poetry, which was existentialist and critical of the painful social reality. However, there were other poetic tendencies, far from the critical social or existential problems, such as Postismo. The name Generation of ’36 is given to all the poets who began writing their first books around that date and continued their work after the war, belonging to one or another trend.

2.1. Postismo: Carlos Edmundo de Ory

Postismo was a poetic movement that sought to return to a taste for sophisticated design, the search for beauty, and the longing for pure poetry, without social or human interference. Carlos Edmundo de Ory stands out. This poet was born in Cadiz in 1923 and lived in Madrid since 1942, where he published his first book of poems, Verses Soon (1945).

2.2. Rooted Poetry

• Dionisio Ridruejo was one of the most genuine representatives of the Generation of ’36 and founder of the magazine Escorial (which promoted Falangist ideas based on classical aesthetic approaches). He was born in Burgo de Osma (Soria) in 1912 and was an active player in Spanish politics (he belonged to the Spanish Falange and was responsible for the anthem Cara al Sol). His poetry is testimonial and intimate, classical in style, and his motives revolve around the themes of love, nature, patriotic and religious feelings, art, and literature. A disciple of Antonio Machado, his first book, Plural (1935), shows Machado’s influence. Then followed works influenced by his militant activities and the circumstances of the time, such as First Book of Love (1936), Poetry in Arms (1939), etc.
• Luis Rosales was born in Granada in 1910. He published his first book of poems, April, in 1935, a date that places him within the “Generation of ’36”. Among Rosales’ works, The Burning House (1949) stands out.
• Luis Felipe Vivanco was born in San Lorenzo de El Escorial in 1907. His first book, Songs of Spring (1933), is a greeting of love from transcendent approaches. His work is characterized by an optimistic, religious, and intimate tone.

2.3. Uprooted Poetry

• Miguel Hernandez: Born in Orihuela in 1910, he participated as a soldier with the Republican army during the civil war. At the end of the war, he was imprisoned in several Spanish cities and sentenced to death. Although the sentence was commuted to thirty years’ imprisonment, his life would be cut short in 1942 in Alicante prison as a result of tuberculosis. His poetic production can be divided into four stages:
  1. A stage characterized by a Baroque tone, which is reflected in Perito en Lunas (1934). Metaphors and symbols stand out as a means to transmute and enrich poetic reality (the moon, the bull, the wheel, the peasant…).
  2. In 1936 he published El Rayo Que No Cesa (The Lightning That Never Stops). The vital center of the work is the passion of love towards what would become his wife, Josefina Manresa, but a passion hampered by the conventions of a provincial moral: love is a “ray” that pierces the heart with tragic omens of death. The work consists mostly of sonnets, although it includes his famous “Elegy to Ramón Sijé,” who died in 1935, a sincere and emotional song to his friend, written in chained triplets.
  3. During the war, Miguel Hernandez used his poetry to fight for the Republican cause and wrote Viento del Pueblo (Wind of the People), a work that is added to the ballads of the Civil War. Like the wind, the poet’s voice encourages the soldiers in the trenches, harangues the fight, and keeps hope alive. They are poems that mourn the death of Lorca, of men on the front lines, they sing of the child Yuntero, the sweat of peasants, the companion, the wife and lover away… but the death of his first child and the loss of his wife to the war plunge the poet into desolation.
  4. Poetry naked and deep. These are the poems, mostly written in prison, that are found in Cancionero y Romancero de Ausencias (Songbook and Balladry of Absences) (1938-1941): the poet laments the lack of his loved ones, and writes intense love poems to his wife. He also remembers a war that only caused hatred and destruction, but still does not give up hope. One of the poems is “Lullaby of the Onion,” dedicated to his second child.
• Dámaso Alonso: Three vocations converge in Dámaso Alonso: teacher, literary researcher and critic, and poet. As a poet, there are two distinct moments: the pure poetry of Juan Ramón Jiménez’s echoes and the one that tears the literary apart (Hijos de la Ira (1944), Hombre y Dios (1955), and Oscura Noticia (1959)).
• Blas de Otero: He was born in Bilbao in 1916. In his first book, Spiritual Songs (1942), influences of Spanish mysticism are perceived. This religious trend continues in his following books Angel Fiercely Human (1950) and Redoble de Conciencia (1951). Here Otero expresses his inner emptiness with the desolation of the world and sends prayers to God with no response. From this agony, his poetry becomes social in I Ask for Peace and the Word (1955) and Castilian (1960), where it is now the social struggle, real and concrete, that interests him, writing a poetry for the vast majority (unlike Juan Ramón Jiménez).
• Gabriel Celaya: His first book, Marea del Silencio (1935), reflects surrealist influences. In the fifties he entered the mainstream of social poetry and reached an ideological line very close to the Communist Party. His most important books are: Las Cartas Boca Arriba (1951) and Cantando en la Mina (1968).

3. Poetic Generation of ’50

Already in the 1950s, coinciding with a slight opening of the regime, there was a new generation of young writers who, apart from the crude social realism of the postwar period, tried to give a new twist to poetry in line with the style of debugging and the resurgence of new themes, neglected by the realists, such as love, childhood memories, etc. The following poets stand out:

• José Hierro: He began with a testimonial theme of protest and gradually became more collective and existential. In 1980 he published an anthology that collected his work and even unpublished poems, but in 1991 he published a book of poems entitled Agenda.
• Ángel González: A poet open to social issues, he offers an ironic detachment, without giving up colloquialism, and a prominent place for solidarity and love. His first book of poems was Harsh World (1956). This was followed by Grade School (1962) and Word for Word (1965), with themes of love. His other poetic works include Urban Treaty (1967).