Jaime Gil de Biedma: War, Childhood, and Poetic Evolution
Jaime Gil de Biedma: A Life Shaped by War and Poetry
Jaime Gil de Biedma was born in 1929 into a family of Spanish gentry. He studied law in Barcelona and Salamanca. His poetry evolved from intimate early poems to social commitment. He avoided Surrealism and sought a contemporary language. His life was marked by his homosexuality, pessimism, and self-destructive intimate experiences. In 1974, he suffered a crisis that led him to withdraw from literary life. He was a leading member of the School of Barcelona.
“I Try to Make My Experience of War”: A Poem of Perception
The poem “I Try to Make My Experience of War,” as the title suggests, explores the author’s perception of war. During the war, as a child of ten, he did not consider himself a victim because he was not fully aware of what was happening. Later, after the war, as he matured, his ideas changed completely.
Structure and Style
The poem consists of seven stanzas with free meter, lacking a consistent rhyme scheme. This freedom in writing allows the author to convey his feelings in a modernist and contemporary style.
Childhood Memories and the Onset of Change
The poem begins with a pleasant memory, recalling his childhood and the happiness he experienced when his life began to change at the age of ten.
Victims and Beneficiaries: A Paradigm of War
The second verse alludes to the real victims of war: children. However, it creates a paradigm, positioning the child as both a victim and a beneficiary. The brutality that a guerrilla might show is tempered when dealing with a child (though not always), and the boy, oblivious to the surrounding events, lives surrounded by fantasies and games, welcoming the war as a simple game without understanding the torment it brings.
Refuge and Discovery
In the third stanza, the poet suggests that, as a child, he had to leave home to seek refuge from the war. His parents, as the poem suggests, abandoned their city to take refuge in the mountains. This led him to have more contact with nature, discovering fascinating landscapes and environments. In the last verse of this stanza, the poet returns to adulthood, stating that love should not outweigh the death of so many people.
Euphoria and Pessimism in a War-Torn Landscape
In the fourth stanza, the poet describes the different locations his family likely chose to take refuge from the war. The initial jitters gripped most people, causing a state of euphoria mixed with pessimism. Segovia, the site of a battle, became a constant flow of soldiers, dead or alive. Children, in disbelief, smiled and joked when they saw maimed or shot soldiers.
Hope and the Promise of Spring
In the fifth stanza, the poet suggests hope, referring to spring, a symbol for poets that something good will happen. The poet may be referring to a “cease-fire.”
Peace and a New Beginning
In the sixth stanza, the poet announces peace, or at least a cessation of war, as indicated by the songs and talks that can occur during peacetime. He also speaks of a ticket to freedom, referring to a new opportunity in life, a chance to start anew.
A Changing Perspective on War
In the seventh stanza, the poet returns to his hometown and explains that, over time, his idea of war has gradually changed. As a young boy, he viewed the war from a child’s perspective, as a game. Now, as a mature adult, he sees the war as a cruelty, but also as a period in which he experienced happiness.
Conclusion
During the war, the poet did not consider himself a victim because he enjoyed the world around him. Over time, his conception of this term has changed, recognizing that children were helpless in the midst of battle.
The immaturity of a child can lead them to believe they can control everything. As they grow and mature, they realize that life and its environment are what truly control them.