Avant-Garde Poetry and Modernism: Darío and Machado
The Avant-Garde Poetry
The First Manifestations of the Vanguards
The Vanguard had its heyday in the 1920s. The most important movements are:
- Futurism: Originated in the Manifesto of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. It rejects sentimentality.
- Cubism: Attaches great importance to the visual aspects, which are reflected in the calligrams created by Guillaume Apollinaire. The disposition of the lines forms a drawing.
- Dadaism: Founded by Tristan Tzara, it laid the foundations of Surrealism. The poet has to be expressed with absolute freedom to achieve the mental liberation of the self.
- Creationism: Its founder was Vicente Huidobro. Features include the poor relationship between the world created by the poem and the immediate reality and the importance attached to the metaphor.
- Surrealism: André Breton’s Surrealist Manifesto is the genesis of this movement. It proclaims the liberation of creative activity through the exploitation of dreams.
Rubén Darío and the Consolidation of Modernism
Rubén Darío led the poetic renewal movement of Modernism. His work, Azul…, is the first assertion of literary Modernism. Compositions are written in verse, and prose evidently follows the guidelines of the new aesthetic: the exotic, elegant sentimentality. It also shows the rejection of the Spanish. Prosas Profanas is populated with elegant features. Cantos de Vida y Esperanza is divided into three thematic parts:
- Aristocratic evasion of reality
- Social and political concern: exalts Spain
- Personal concern: reflects on existence itself, giving rise to intimate Modernism
Antonio Machado: From Modernism to War Poetry
Antonio Machado met Rubén Darío, and the relationship between the two poets was very intense. Machado’s poetic career began in the Modernist aesthetic with Soledades. In Soledades, Machado proclaims a poem full of emotions and feelings. The poet is presented as a mature man who evokes the feeling of youth. He also covers the topic of time. In these early works, the Modernist affiliation and Symbolist inheritance are manifested: Machado tries to suggest the most profound and intense sensations.
Campos de Castilla
Campos de Castilla was conceived as a collection of poems that appeared in various anthologies. This work has four thematic groups:
- Soria: The Soria landscape arouses different sensations. He describes the landscape. The author distinguishes between the “Spain of the past”, epic and glorious, and the “Spain of the present”, mired in hopelessness and a lack of ideals.
- Baeza: He recalls with nostalgia the Soriano landscape. Soria is now the memory of Castile and the land of Leonor. His tenure in Andalusia brought him into contact with the Spain of the landowner. Social criticism appears, directed at ignorant Spain, while hope is reborn for a new Spain.
- Proverbs and Songs: Short meditations on the mysteries of man and the world, combining the philosophical and the popular. The topics covered are reality and dreams.
- Accolades: Fourteen poems in homage to literary figures and thinkers admired by Machado.
In Nuevas Canciones, he exposes his deepest concerns and considerations. He successively published his poems in anthologies, such as Poesías Completas.