Blas de Otero’s Poetry: An Existential and Social Journey
A World Like a Tree Broken Off
Topic: Pessimistic Vision of the World and the Theme of Death
Structure: Maintains a formal classicism.
Introduction (1-8): Presents the existential problem (the world, verses 1-4) and the pessimistic state of the poet. Introduces nature (verses 4-8) as part of that inanimate being against which man, who belongs there and can change his own destiny, struggles. Stylistic devices used by the poet include comparison (a world like a tree broken off / on the sea like an enormous hymen), metaphor (the quiet trees swaying green), and personification (the stars crackle).
Development (9-15): Poetic quest for a new vital reason. Existential loneliness appears in verse nine (only man is alone), and man is faced with the problem of death (known alive and mortal). It uses the metaphor (it feels to escape the river of time to death), the tautology (follow along), and closes with the last verse, which is a metaphor alluding to the dead (to sleep the sleep of the living).
Conclusion (16-21): Acceptance of one’s own mortality. The stanza begins with several anaphors and three parallel structures (verses 16-18) and three verbs that tell the vigil to a situation that is inevitable (see, sailing, kills). In the last three verses, the immortal nature appears again in front of man’s mortality. And in the end, the antithesis appears (the snow on fire light suspended).
Kiss as if You’ll Eat
Topic: Love Through a Kiss
Structure:
Introduction (1-4): Two people are me and you (players of the kiss). The verse is introduced with a strong comparison (total desire for possession). It uses amphorae (kiss, kiss), uses metaphors of sea and kisses, transmitting indicated softness and taste. Strong expression (à adentellados Wishes).
Development (5-14): Again, the self (poet) feels defeated and speaks again of the ecstasy of love (baby my life, my death climb). Again, it uses certain resources: alliteration bilabial (kiss, sip), enumeration (oh God, oh God, oh God). The image of “you” appears as God, who is the poetic quest for a new vital reason (if enough to see a kiss).
Conclusion (15-32): Begins with three causal anaphors explaining that conclusion, the causes of love that merges with death (because…) and is the subject of death by accepting his own mortality by love, by the delivery. Personification appears in “your love drinking, sipping your death,” and in the last three verses, death appears accepted by love.
Because I Want Your Body Blindly
Topic: The Desire for Love and Time with an Expiration Date
Structure:
Introduction (1-6): The problem is presented, and the mood of the poet is established, seeking the causes. This uses two stylistic devices: anaphora (repetition of the causal conjunction “because” over four lines) and the use of parallel structures (conjunction + verb + complement). It also uses several evaluative adverbs (blindly, inconsolably).
Development (7-13): Expresses the loving expressions of that phase (tooth for tooth, vein to vein) and makes a kind of remembrance of the poems of Antonio Machado (verse by verse). The self and “you” appear, that person is identified with God and that your loved one. Uses personifications (drinking your love, sipping your death) and hyperbole (vein to vein is sucking my death).
Conclusion (14-19): Is the acceptance of one’s own mortality, and it appears the cause that starts the poem (I want your body). Love, desire, is fused with death and new uses of anaphora (because…), parallelism, and metaphor (this terrible sadness in love).
Man
Topic: Man’s Struggle in Solitude. It is the Angel’s Rebellion Against God.
Structure:
Introduction (1-4): Is the human struggle with death. It is a perennial struggle to the brink of existence, displayed when you need to cry out to God and receive no replacement. Stylistic devices such as personification (melee combat death) and metaphor (my voice drowns in a vacuum inert) are highlighted.
Development (5-10): All attempts to release the man are started and fatally repressed. It is a loving and not a power struggle. In this confrontation between creator and creature and the influences of the comments of San Juan de la Cruz, it appears the new search of the poet, a new vital reason that makes you stand. Resources: personification and metaphor (see clawing shadows).
Conclusion (11-14): Is the acceptance of who you are and what you have and the acceptance of one’s own mortality. Essentialist pessimism appears and makes an allusion to Hamlet (being and nothing). The last line is the paradigm of the tragic condition of man, always torn between the desire for eternity (being an angel) and the human condition of being a man destined to death.
Rise
Topic: War and Its Consequences
Structure: Free verse, bimembre structure.
Introduction (1-45): Pessimism, horror, and disappointment at those times as a result of wars. Allusions to the Spanish Civil War (I advance on this old ground) and the European war. Uses a dynamic style (I’m watching, I advance) that gives the sensation of movement in spite of adversity: allusion to the dead men, children… the word blood appears throughout the poem as a result of wars. Thrusts appear (lines that are cut abruptly to continue in the next) throughout the poem to give us the feeling of translamiento. Metaphors occur (sinking of the arms in the blood) and personification (the little heart dump).
Conclusion (46-50): Opens with hope that rose out of that situation. The poet’s mood reappears as a result of the ruins. Uses personification (a horrid thirst for blood).
The Vast Majority
Topic: It Raises the Breakdown of the Previous Stage and the Definitive Start of a New Form of Poetry (the Self to Us).
Structure:
Introduction (1-4): Is breaking with the above lived and loved and is with other men (down to the street and understands). Uses lists (master, lived, died) and the past tense (broke, understood).
Development (5-16): 1st stanza talks about this flight from the previous stage to avoid any relationship with death that made sense. 2nd stanza talks about the situation from the past and the struggling man. Uses the comparison (as he calls the wind) and metaphor (waves of blood). 3rd stanza: again, the images of war (atrocious angels) pertaining to war appear and represent the man at the time turning around their lives. It uses the metaphor (ugly fish, atrocious angels, sea swords).
Conclusion (16-20): Total spin, the spin of his life and his poetry. This is what I want and what you want, and the word peace.