Antonio Machado’s Poetry: Solitudes, Fields of Castile, and Civil War Poems
Contextualization
The texts we will analyze belong to *Solitudes*, *Fields of Castile*, and *Poems of the Civil War*, written by Antonio Machado. Born in Seville in 1875, Machado moved to Madrid eight years later. In 1902, he established a lasting friendship with the writer Rubén Darío. Influenced by modernism, he published his first book in 1903. After meeting his beloved Leonor, he moved to Paris. Following her death, Machado began to create increasingly personal literature. He fell ill in late 1939 and later died in France.
Solitudes
This book of poems appeared at the height of modernism. His poems are dominated by a mournful and melancholy tone, with themes of intimacy, love, and the passage of time, characteristic of post-romanticism.
Fields of Castile
Considered Antonio Machado’s masterpiece, *Fields of Castile* was published in 1912, shortly before the death of his wife, Leonor. Successively expanded with new poems, it exposes man’s meditations on the eternal human condition. The work is dominated by what are called genre paintings, paintings of landscapes and people, meditations on loneliness, austere landscapes, the fleeting nature of time, and death.
“The Poem” Analysis
The poem consists of quatrains (number of phrases that make up each verse) in assonance rhyme (1-8) (The first verse with the third, and the second with the fourth). Each verse is composed of eight syllables (Number next to each sentence), that is, the quatrains are formed by eight-syllable verses. The subject is the passage of time, shown as the poem describes a path being traveled. The path refers to his life as it passes. The poem contains several reflections of the poet. One would be what will come in the future in his life, which he suggests by asking, “Where does the road go?”.
Several stylistic figures appear, such as enjambment (“and the whole field is a moment, silent and gloomy, brooding”), a metaphor (“passenger”) referring to Machado, another metaphor (“the whole field is a moment, silent and gloomy, brooding”) where the field relates to Machado’s life. In the poem, Machado mentions the poplars, which are a symbol of youth (of life). We also see a metonymy (“meditating”), which refers to the poet’s meditation in the field.
The last quatrain’s verses tell us that the road faintly whitens, blurs, and disappears. The poet wants to tell us that it is evening and he cannot see beyond that way. In the last verses of the poem, he refers to a sharp, golden spine in his heart. The spine is sharp because it refers to the pain that results when it is nailed, and it is golden because he feels a certain pleasure.
Literary Devices
- Epithet: Unnecessary adjective
- Apostrophe: Talking to someone without expecting an answer
- Enjambment: When the meaning of a verse ends in another
- Hyperbole: An exaggerated reality
- Antithesis: The expression of contrary ideas
- Anaphora: When two or more lines begin with the same word
- Epiphonema: When the last verses of the poem summarize the previous ones
- Alliteration: Repetition of a consonant
- Metaphor: Comparison
- Polysyndeton: Many conjunctions
- Asyndeton: Shortage of conjunctions
- Rhyme Chains: When a trio that must rhyme (1st with 3rd, and the 2nd free) rhymes with the other triplet instead of being free
- Trio: Verse of 3 lines of major art, heroic verse (11 syllables)
- Quartet: Stanza of four verses of major art, hendecasyllables (11 syllables)
- Serventesio: 4 hendecasyllable verses of major art with rhyme (1st-3rd, 2nd-4th)
- Romance: Poem of an undefined number of eight-syllable verses, assonance rhyme, and odd verses are loose
Connectors
- Intercourse: Also, too, well, then
- Effects: But, instead, however, yet, but, though
- Choice: Because, since, for this reason, therefore, for that
- Grounds: Well, because, so, because
- Concessive: Although, though, although, even if, though
- Predecessor: Some time earlier, that walk
- Simultaneity: At a time when, as
- Location: Here, there, there, in front of, above
- Disclaimer: That is, in other words, more precisely, in a nutshell
- Precision: On the one hand, concerning, regarding, on the other hand, as far as that is concerned
- Comparative: Similarly, likewise, on the other hand, inversely
- In conclusion: Finally, in summary, in short, finally, finally, to conclude
Personal Opinion
- Recap the highlights of the text.
- Reject the author’s ideas, bringing new arguments.
- Interest of the text depending on the target audience.
- Ratings between what the text says and what the author uses.
- Relate what the text says to arguments of other philosophical and literary types.
- Using rhetorical questions.