Antonio Machado: Life, Works, and Poetic Evolution
Antonio Machado: Life and Work
Antonio Machado was born in Seville on July 26, within a middle-class, liberal, and progressive family. He later lived in Madrid, where he studied in 1893. He openly published his first prose works, while his first poems appeared in 1901. He was a professor and married Leonor Izquierdo. A few months after the appearance of Campos de Castilla, Leonor died (August 1). He wrote in all genres, standing out prominently in poetry. His first book was Soledades (1903), a few poems of a modernist character, in which the emotion of the moment and the hidden sense of what surrounds him stand out. With the same character, he wrote Soledades, Galerías y Otros Poemas (1907), in which he made a selection of his first work, adding other poems of a distinctly modernist character. Campos de Castilla (1912) is his best-known book, and, besides being his masterpiece, it is the work in which he most refines his style. Influenced by his love for Castile, Soria, and walks along the Duero, near the old elm, he dedicated an entire poem to it. In Nuevas Canciones (1924), Machado’s artistic hand does not disappear, although criticism increases while intimacy decreases. It is said that Nuevas Canciones is his most intimate style. Antonio Machado’s style is based on simplicity and an effort to reach everyone. His poems are intimate and natural.
Antonio Machado’s Poetic Stages
First Stage: Soledades
The first stage is marked by the publication of Soledades. The frequent topics are mostly existential: the passage of time, dreams, youth, death, loneliness, poetic creation, etc. In the “Kanto,” the dialogue stands out in which personified elements of nature (the afternoon, water and the fountain, or the garden) are questioned by the poetic voice. The meter is generally minor art, with consonant rhymes between stanzas. Hepta- and endecasyllables are frequent, as are romance, quatrain, and song. Stylistic devices include metaphor, adjective, and epithet.
Second Stage: Campos de Castilla
The second stage includes the publication of Campos de Castilla in 1912. The most significant aspect of this time is that Machado abandoned poetic introspection and began to care about others. Everything continues to be expressed with great emotion, but now the images are of a real landscape. The key issue is the decline of Spain and the character of its inhabitants, although it also addresses others, such as the enigma of life and Machado’s religious concerns. In this work, he sets his hopes on the youth of the next generation. It also includes other new themes and forms, as Campos de Castilla is made up of:
- Proverbios y Cantares
- Seven poems dedicated to the death of Leonor
- La Tierra de Alvargonzález
Regarding metrics, the line appears, and the tone acquires robustness. It emphasizes the use of the lira, silva, or quatrains.
Third Stage: Nuevas Canciones and Later Works
The third stage is marked by the publication in 1924 of Nuevas Canciones, the extension of Campos de Castilla, the Apócrifos, and Cancionero Apócrifo a Guiomar, his new love. The structure used is the sonnet and short compositions inspired by folk tradition. The tone is sober, and Machado’s poetry ends with a score of texts known as the War Poems. The adjective is very important in much of Machado’s poetry.