Generation of ’27: Exploring the Spanish Poetic Renaissance
Generation of ’27: A Poetic Revolution in Spain
Aesthetic Renovation and Literary Tradition
The Generation of ’27 spearheaded an aesthetic movement to revitalize Spanish poetry. This group of poets embraced avant-garde innovations while honoring the rich Spanish literary tradition. Their poems demonstrate a conscious effort to refine and renew poetic expression through the incorporation of diverse vocabulary, including religious terms, slang, and colloquialisms previously considered unsuitable for poetry.
The Power of Metaphor and Formal Experimentation
The metaphor emerged as the dominant literary device, effectively conveying the surrealist themes explored by these poets. While employing traditional stanza forms like the sonnet, romance, and carol, they also experimented with blank verse, free verse, and other innovative structures. This freedom of form became a defining characteristic of the Generation of ’27.
Thematic Evolution: From Art for Art’s Sake to Humanization
Initially, the Generation of ’27 focused on the poem itself, embracing the concept of ‘art for art’s sake.’ However, influenced by Surrealism, their poetry gradually evolved towards a more humanized approach, delving into themes of pain, joy, and memory. The Spanish Civil War further intensified this focus on human experience, leading many poets to address the war’s impact directly. For instance, Rafael Alberti’s work transitioned from the pure, detached poetry of Marinero en tierra (1924) to the profound social engagement of El poeta en la calle (1936).
Key Figures of the Generation of ’27
Pedro Salinas (1892-1951): The Poet of Love
Pedro Salinas, often hailed as the ‘poet of love’ within the Generation of ’27, was born in Madrid and pursued studies in Philosophy and Law. He held professorships in literature at Spanish universities and served as a reader of Spanish at the Sorbonne and Cambridge. During the Spanish Republic, he acted as secretary of the International Summer University of La Magdalena in Santander. Following the Civil War, Salinas went into exile, continuing his academic career in the United States and Puerto Rico. He passed away in Boston in 1951.
Salinas’s literary contributions extend beyond poetry to encompass literary criticism and scholarship, evidenced by his significant studies on Jorge Manrique and Rubén Darío, as well as his influential works Literatura española. Siglo XX (1949) and Ensayos de literatura hispánica (1958).
Love constitutes the central theme in most of Salinas’s poetry. His work is characterized by a profound sensibility and genuine sincerity. His poems are often concise and frequently disregard rhyme, achieving rhythm through the repetition of words or syntactic structures.
Presagios (1923) marks his debut work, followed by Seguro azar (1929) and Fábula y signo (1932), forming the initial phase of his poetic journey. These early works reveal influences from Romantic poets like Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Juan Ramón Jiménez, and avant-garde movements such as Futurism and Ultraism. Salinas engages in a continuous dialogue between the self and the imagination, often personifying the latter as another individual.
La voz a ti debida (1934) and Razón de amor (1936) stand as Salinas’s two major poetic achievements. Love permeates these works, serving as the underlying theme. The self and the ‘you’ engage in an intimate dialogue that captivates the reader with its enigmatic quality. The poems, typically short, possess a deceptive simplicity. Salinas’s language is conversational, enhancing the authenticity that permeates his writing.
During his exile in America, Salinas composed his final two significant works: El Contemplado (1946) and Todo más claro (1949). These poems reflect a thematic development, with the love poems evolving into expressions of despair and anguish over the situation in Spain, ravaged by the aftermath of the Civil War. Salinas grapples with his personal experience as an exile while remaining acutely aware of the global context.
Jorge Guillén (1893-1984): The Poet of Pure Emotion
Born in Valladolid, Jorge Guillén earned a Ph.D. in Literature from the University of Madrid and embarked on a career as a professor of Spanish and European literature. Following the Spanish Civil War, he went into exile to America, continuing to teach in Colombia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the United States.
Guillén’s poetry can be classified as ‘pure’ or intellectual, characterized by the absence of decorative elements that Modernism had introduced. His focus is on pure lyrical emotion, eliminating anecdotal details while retaining the essence of sentiment. He embraces existence and celebrates tangible, everyday experiences in his poems.
Many of Guillén’s poems are expressions of joy and fulfillment, celebrating existence and the present moment. He employs simple vocabulary, predominantly nouns, and straightforward syntactic structures. From a metrical perspective, he utilizes both traditional and cultured stanzas, such as the sonnet and décima, alongside popular forms like the romance.
Guillén’s complete poetic output is collected in three evolving works: Cántico (1928-1950), Clamor (1957-1963), and Homenaje (1967). He later published Y otros poemas (1973). His work exhibits a unifying theme: a preoccupation with global unity, as expressed in Aire nuestro.
Cántico is a song dedicated to the world, to existence, to the simple beauty of everyday life and nature. It is considered his most important work and one of the most significant in twentieth-century Spanish poetry.
Clamor presents the other side of the coin. While continuing to celebrate beauty, it introduces the negative aspects of existence, such as poverty, hunger, and war. Nevertheless, Guillén maintains an underlying optimism.
Homenaje represents a return to the spirit of Cántico, but with a broader scope, encompassing themes of friendship, art, and culture.
Gerardo Diego (1896-1987): Master of Form and Integration
Born in Santander, Gerardo Diego studied philosophy and literature in Madrid and pursued a career as a Professor of Literature. He founded the literary journals Carmen and Lola. Alongside Vicente Huidobro and Juan Larrea, he cultivated the poetic movement known as Creationism. However, his oeuvre encompasses a wide range of literary styles, including traditional poetry, avant-garde experimentation, humanized poetry, and poems about bullfighting.
Diego’s work reflects the diverse trends that shaped Spanish literature, unified by his mastery of form and his ability to integrate classical and modern elements. He authored nearly fifty books, although we will focus on his key works.
From an artistic perspective, Imagen (1922) and Manual de espumas (1924) stand out. These works exemplify dehumanized poetry, characterized by complex imagery and a quest for a new reality, aligning with the principles of Creationism. Diego employs free verse and often omits punctuation.
While embracing avant-garde techniques, Diego also demonstrates his command of traditional forms and themes in works such as Romancero de la novia (1918), Soria (1923), Versos humanos (1925), Versos divinos (1938-41), and his masterpiece, Alondra de verdad (1941). He utilizes traditional forms like the romance, décima, and sonnet, expressing his emotions on diverse subjects such as love, landscape, religion, music, and bullfighting.
Gerardo Diego is recognized as one of the most accomplished sonnet writers of the twentieth century, as evidenced by his exceptional work Alondra de verdad. His poetry reveals a keen sensitivity for capturing beauty, although it may lack the emotional intensity found in the work of poets like Pedro Salinas. Nevertheless, Diego’s ability to integrate the innovative trends of the avant-garde with the Spanish literary tradition is a remarkable achievement.
In the realm of prose, Diego’s significant contribution lies in his anthologies of poetry and poets, published in 1932 and 1934. These anthologies provide an invaluable overview of the most prominent poetry of the first third of the twentieth century in Spain.
Federico García Lorca (1898-1936): The Poet of Andalusian Soul and Surrealist Vision
Born in Fuente Vaqueros (Granada), Federico García Lorca studied law, philosophy, and literature. In Madrid, he resided at the Residencia de Estudiantes, where he interacted with leading intellectuals of his time. In addition to his poetic talents, he was also dedicated to music and painting. Throughout his life, marked by both triumph and tragedy, he cultivated poetry and drama with equal success. Today, he is considered one of the most important figures in Spanish literary history. He was tragically executed near Granada in 1936 due to his support for the Republic.
Lorca’s early publications, Libro de poemas (1921) and Canciones (1922), establish him as one of the first poets of the Generation of ’27 to publish his work. These early poems reveal the influence of Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer and Modernism. Gradually, Lorca discovers his unique poetic voice, as seen in Poema del cante jondo (composed in 1921, published in 1931). This work explores the Andalusian spirit through the lens of flamenco songs, with death as a recurring theme. Lorca approaches popular themes from a religious perspective, imbuing each poem with his distinctive style.
Romancero gitano (1928) stands as one of Lorca’s major poetic achievements. He associates the world of the gypsies, stylized and unreal, with freedom and joy, contrasting it with the Civil Guard, a symbol of repression and misery. This work explores the opposition between life and death. It represents a fusion of art and tradition, with artistic expression manifested in vivid imagery and the use of metaphor, while tradition is evident in the consistent use of the romance form. The Andalusian world is depicted from a fantastical and unreal perspective.
Lorca’s trip to New York in 1929 profoundly impacted him. This experience inspired Poeta en Nueva York (1935). Through the lens of Surrealism, he portrays New York as the embodiment of the negative aspects of civilization, particularly its dehumanizing structures. Lorca expresses his disdain for this way of life through innovative metaphors and imagery. This work marks a significant shift in his style, characterized by illogical, dreamlike images, bizarre associations, and the frequent use of free verse.
Surrealism also permeates Diván del Tamarit (1931-34), a collection of eighteen short poems that delve into Arabic and Andalusian culture.
Llanto por Ignacio Sánchez Mejías (1934) is considered one of Lorca’s finest works. Dedicated to the death of his friend Ignacio Sánchez Mejías, a bullfighter and poet, in the bullring, it encapsulates Lorca’s poetic world. It combines popular elements with Surrealism, employing highly stylized language and masterful use of metaphor and repetition.
Lorca’s poetry arguably represents the pinnacle of the Generation of ’27. He uniquely blends religious and popular themes. The vibrancy and brilliance of his poems are undeniable, and his distinctive style is unmistakable.
Vicente Aleixandre (1898-1984): Master of Surrealism and Postwar Poetry
Born in Seville, Vicente Aleixandre spent most of his childhood in Málaga. He later moved to Madrid, where he studied law. He dedicated himself fully to literature, a pursuit that earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1977. Aleixandre became a leading figure in postwar Spanish poetry.
His early works appeared slightly later than those of other members of the Generation of ’27. In 1928, he published Ámbito, followed by one of his major works, Espadas como labios, in 1932. These works are written in the Surrealist style.
His masterpiece, La destrucción o el amor, published in 1934, also falls under the Surrealist umbrella. The world is presented as a unified entity in which humans are compelled to love. Aleixandre employs free verse, often in extended lines, and utilizes formal language.
Sombra del paraíso (composed in 1939, published in 1944) chronicles the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. Amidst the pain and suffering, Aleixandre seeks out beauty.
Historia del corazón (1954) focuses on human solidarity as a path towards progress.
Aleixandre’s later works, Poemas de la consumación (1968) and Diálogos del conocimiento (1974), mark a mature phase in his poetic development. In these works, he reconnects with his early Surrealist tendencies.
He is considered one of the masters of postwar Spanish poetry, particularly for his exploration of two fundamental themes: love and life.
Dámaso Alonso (1898-1990): The Poet of Uprootedness and Existential Anguish
Born in Madrid, Dámaso Alonso initially studied law but later switched to philology. He held professorships at the Universities of Valencia and Madrid and served as president of the Royal Spanish Academy of Language (1968-1982).
His literary career began with Poemas puros. Poemillas de la ciudad (1921), a work influenced by Romanticism and Modernism. The influence of Antonio Machado and Juan Ramón Jiménez is evident in his early poetry.
His second book, El viento y el verso (1925), follows a similar vein.
After a period of literary silence, he published his masterpiece, Hijos de la ira (1944), one of the most significant works of the postwar period in Spain. Alonso described his poetry as ‘uprooted,’ reflecting the experience of those who felt alienated in a world dominated by hatred and revenge. He laments injustice and poverty and questions the meaning of life in his poignant poems, such as “Insomnia.” The poems in Hijos de la ira are imbued with emotion, deeply humanized, and exemplify the existential poetry that emerged in the aftermath of the war.
Oscura noticia, also published in 1944, compiles poems from different periods of his career.
Hombre y Dios (1955), like Hijos de la ira, explores human existence and the social situation in Spain.
Dámaso Alonso’s contributions to literary criticism are also noteworthy. He published influential essays and studies, including La lengua poética de Góngora (1935), La poesía de San Juan de la Cruz (1942), Poesía española (1950), and Poetas españoles contemporáneos (1952).
Other Notable Authors Associated with the Generation of ’27
Several other, lesser-known authors can be considered part of the Generation of ’27. Most were born between 1895 and 1905 and followed a similar literary trajectory.
Manuel Altolaguirre (1905-1959) and Emilio Prados (1899-1962) went into exile in Mexico. Altolaguirre’s poetry is characterized by a romantic sensibility, exploring themes of anguish and love, as exemplified in his best-known work, Las islas invitadas (1926). Prados actively contributed to literary magazines such as Litoral (which he co-founded with Altolaguirre) and Caballo verde para la poesía. His poetry is marked by political engagement, as seen in Cancionero menor para los combatientes (1938).
Juan José Domenchina (1898-1959), initially influenced by Juan Ramón Jiménez, later embraced Surrealism in Déjame crecer (1929).
Other poets associated with the Generation of ’27 include León Felipe, Juan Chabás, Pedro Garfias, José María Hinojosa, Mauricio Bacarisse, Ramón Basterra, Juan Antonio Espina, and Juan Larrea.