Antonio Machado: Life and Works of a Spanish Poet
Antonio Machado: A Spanish Literary Icon
Antonio Machado Ruiz (Seville, 26 July 1875 – Collioure, France, 22 February 1939) was a Spanish poet, a late member of the Generation of ’98. His early work often enrolled in the literary movement called Modernism. He was one of the most representative of the so-called Generation of ’98.
Early Works: Solitudes and Personal Voice
His poetry began with Solitudes (1903), which was written between 1899 and 1902. In this short amount, many personal traits that characterize his later poetry are already noticeable. In Solitudes, Galleries and Other Poems (October 1907), the poet’s voice rises with its own personality. That same year, he moved to the town of Soria to teach French. In this city, he met his future wife, Eleanor. Perhaps most typical of that personality is the ‘tone’ nostalgic, gently melancholic, even when talking about very real things or issues of the time, abandoned gardens, old parks, fountains, etc. Spaces which he approaches through memory, sleep, or daydreaming.
*Campos de Castilla*: A Shift in Focus
This intimacy never disappears, although in the next release, Campos de Castilla (1912), Antonio Machado explored new ways (not in vain, his noventayochista book). In 1912, the poet’s library looks especially at the geographical area surrounding the land -Castilian- and the men who live there. A Campos de Castilla section contained in the edition of Complete Poems (1917) added new texts that are not listed in 1912:
- a) A group of poems written in Baeza after the death of his wife, Eleanor, in which memory plays a fundamental role,
- b) A series of short poems, reflective in nature, judgmental, that the poet called “Proverbs and Songs”, and
- c) Very few critical texts: social criticism and criticism of Spain at that time.
*New Songs*: Nostalgia and Philosophical Reflections
The book New Songs (1924), written partly in Baeza, remembers some of its parts’ nostalgic tone of the first Machado. There is a presence of the land of Soria, evoked from a distance. There is also Upper Andalusia, a real and mythical geographic area at a time. It also continues in the new book, the pithy line (proverbs and songs) already began in Campos de Castilla.
Apocryphal Figures and Philosophical Prose
The Complete Poems editions of 1928 and 1933 have news worth highlighting. Especially, we must mention the emergence of two major apocryphal figures, “Juan de Mairena” and “Abel Martin” -Mairena’s master-, plus a third, which carries the same name as a poet. They are all authors of the poems added to these new editions. Juan de Mairena is also the author of prose commentaries: of Machado, he said some years later that he is his “philosophical self.” Among the texts that are attributed to these characters highlight, on the one hand, a philosophical (philosophy steeped in lyricism), on the other hand, a few erotic poems, whose inspirational figure (Pilar de Valderrama in real life, in poetry Guiomar) was the last great love of the poet.
*Juan de Mairena*: A Prose Masterpiece
In 1936, on the eve of the Civil War, he published a book of prose: Juan de Mairena. Sentences, quips, notes, and memories of an apocryphal teacher. This is a meeting of essays that had been published in the Madrid press since 1934. This volume shows that its author is one of the most original prose writers of our century. Through these pages, Machado-Mairena talks about society, culture, art, literature, politics, and philosophy. He uses a wide variety of tones, ranging from apparent frivolity to the maximum severity, through irony, grace, or humor.
The Civil War and Final Years
During the ongoing civil strife, he moved with his family to Valencia. Joining the Writers Alliance of Antifascist movement, he actively participated in the II International Congress in the city of Valencia. Machado wrote a few texts in verse and many in prose. Some -verse and prose- are reflected in his latest book, War (1937, with illustrations by Jose Machado). If much of the last writing should be viewed as purely testimonial, there are, however, certain texts of the greatest literary quality. Among them, The Crime Was in Granada.
Theatrical Collaborations with Manuel Machado
During the twenties and the early years of the thirties, he wrote theater in collaboration with his brother Manuel. Both premiered in Madrid the following works: Misfortunes of Fortune or Julian Valcarcel (1926), Don Juan de Manara (1927), Oleander (1928), La Lola is Going to Ports (1929), La Prima Fernanda (1931), and The Duchess of Benamejí (1932). Currently, this poet is honored by the Spanish singer Joan Manuel Serrat, and one of his hits is “Songs.”
Tomb of Antonio Machado
In the cemetery of Collioure (France)