Analysis of Miguel Hernandez’s Poetry
Expert on Moon (1933)
Palm
This poem, performed to a palm tree, uses a baroque style, rich in metaphors.
Analysis Metric
It consists of 8 lines, each with 11 syllables (heroic verse). The rhyme scheme is ABABABCC, with a final couplet, forming an octava real stanza.
Expressive Resources
This poem is full of metaphors: “column” replaces “palm,” “supplier” replaces leaves, “corkscrew” represents spurs seen against the moon, “camel” describes the successive cuts of leaves at the palm’s upper end, resembling two humps, “cloister” is likened to the spine of the trunk and branches, and “chokers” refers to dates.
Pure Poetry (1933-1934)
Whistle the Claim in the Village
The theme is the poet’s nostalgia for the countryside, which he misses while in the city.
Analysis Metric
The poem’s structure is irregular. It begins with a quintet of high art, heroic verse, with an ABABA rhyme scheme. This is followed by a quartet with a seven-syllable verse and heroic verse, with a DCCD rhyme scheme. It also includes an octava real with heptasyllables and heroic verse, and another irregular quintet. (No fixed model is followed.)
Expressive Resources
The first two lines use hyperbaton and symmetry. “High” and “low” form an antithesis. “A splendid city of spiders” is a metaphor. “Silent cataracts” is a personification. “Occupied the post of my flowers, the air from my air and my river” uses repetition. “Devil and God” is an antithesis. “Village, orchard, source” is a list. “Stop!, Stop!, Stop!, Stop! Order!, Order!, What haughty imposition of order a hand, a color, a sound!” are exclamations. “Bumped by a thousand breasts” and “over a thousand dangers” are hyperboles. “And horn lusts, desires and trams” is an enumeration. There is anaphora at the beginning of verses 39 and 41, 60 and 61, 67 and 71. “The Babel Babel” is a metaphor. “The male smell of jasmine” forms a synesthesia, among other expressive resources.
Lightning That He Continues (1936)
My Name is Mud but Call Me Miguel
In this poem, the poet identifies himself with mud, his work.
Analysis Metric
The poem begins with chained trios and quintets but consists mainly of irregular stanzas. The metric alternates between seven-syllable verses and heroic verse, forming a silva.
Expressive Resources
“My name is mud” is a metaphor. “I am a sad tool of the road. I am a sweet tongue infamous” forms an anaphora. “As a night water ox” is a comparison. The repetition of the conjunction “and” in verses 9, 10, and 11 creates polysyndeton. “Impassive foot” is a play on words. “Wetter than the face of my tears” is a hyperbole. The repetition of “mud in vain” in verses 26, 27, and 28 creates anaphora, as does the repetition of “fears” in verses 48 and 49.
El Toro as He Born for Mourning
In this poem, the poet identifies himself with the bull and its characteristics.
Analysis Metric
It consists of 4 stanzas: two quartets and two triplets, forming a sonnet. It uses high art, heroic verse, and has an ABBA ABBA CDC CDC rhyme scheme.
Expressive Resources
The poet’s identification with the bull is a metaphor. “As the bull” is a comparison. “Iron hellish” and “man in the groin with a fruit” show symmetry. The repetition of “like” creates an anaphora. “I tongue bathed in heart” is a hyperbaton. “Wind noise” is a metaphor.
Elegy
This is a lament for the death of a friend in Orihuela.
Analysis Metric
It consists of 16 stanzas, mostly composed of chained triplets (except the last, which is a serventesio to conclude the poem). It uses high art and heroic verse. The rhyme is consonant, with an ABA/BCB/CDC… scheme, ending with PQPQ.
Expressive Resources
“The Manger” is a metaphor. “And my sore bodies without instrument” is a hyperbaton. “By hurt it hurts to breathe” is a hyperbole, not an exaggeration. “Hard slap,” “cold hit,” “hack invisible killer,” “brutal push” are metaphors for death. “On stubble I’m dead” is a hyperbole. There is anaphora in lines 19, 20, and 21; 22, 23, and 24; 28 and 29.
Other Loose Poems (1935-1936)
Ode Between Blood and Wine – Pablo Neruda
A song of exaltation to the Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda.
Analysis Metric
Composed of 14 stanzas and 134 verses. It features irregular stanzas and free verse (with occasional assonance rhyme), often without rhyme. The verses are hexameters.
Expressive Resources
There is anaphora in lines 2 and 3, 12 and 13, 26, 29 and 32, 36, 37 and 38 (the latter two also contain antitheses), 85 and 86, 97 and 98. In verse 6, “I” and “you” form an antithesis. “Right here more intimate than a soul” is a hyperbole. The words “ocean,” “waves,” “fish,” “red,” and “beaches” form a semantic field related to the sea. “With their mouths covered with roots” is a hyperbole. “Cardinals and archbishops, and microns, taffy, humidity” is an enumeration. The repetition of “and” at the beginning of verses 49, 50, and 51 forms a polysyndeton.
Wind of the Town (1937)
(Social Poetry)
Winds Bring Me the People
The poet expresses social solidarity with his people, showing a desire for change and reform.
Analysis Metric
Consisting of 9 stanzas that form a romance, it uses minor art and eight-syllable verses. The rhyme is assonance (in pairs), with an -aaa rhyme scheme.
Expressive Resources
“Winds of the People” is a metaphor, and its repetition in the second verse creates an anaphora. “Bend the front, gentle helplessly in front of punishment: the rise lions” are personifications. “Who spoke of taking a yoke on the neck of this breed? Who has ever hurricane or yokes or check, or who the lightning stopped prisoner in a cage?” are rhetorical questions. From verse 25 to 41, there is a semantic field related to the peoples of Spain. The repetition of “and” in verses 28, 30, and 33 creates polysyndeton. “Dead and twenty times dead” and “cannot wait to death” are hyperboles, among other expressive resources.