Joan Alcover: Modernism, Noucentisme, and Humanization of Art
Joan Alcover: Between Modernism and Noucentisme
Alcover’s work stands at the intersection of two currents. On one hand, Modernism champions the creative freedom of the human spirit and the expansion of intimate poetic emotions. On the other, Noucentisme focuses exclusively on form and the aesthetic aspects of Modernism, advocating art for art’s sake, a poet closed in his ivory tower, completely detached from the rest of humanity. Alcover announces this in the conference “The Humanization of Art,” delivered in 1904. Alcover’s poetry subordinates beauty to the ideal of authentic communication. He proposes an art based on the balance between reality and the ideal, harmony between reason and feeling, between formalism and spontaneity. And although he feels inclined to temper and balance with the serenity offered by the classics, he refuses the “art for art’s sake” of the Parnassians. Alcover is regarded as a poet who “is not nourished by art alone,” he says. The Mallorcan poet does not seek mere aesthetic pleasure or a partial view of the outside world, but aspires to capture the essence of the human heart, to assimilate the most intimate experiences, believing that artistic creation is born of the human spirit and nature. However, he believes it essential to master the technique to be rid of it. For Joan Alcover, the matter is not only poetic inspiration but also form, i.e., the inspiration has to submit to the formal process. Nature is a constant reference in Alcover’s work. Human nature is projected onto its moods, or nature mirrors man with all its intensity. Alcover also justifies an art rooted in the land and collective life, in reality and the ideal. For Alcover, art detached from the earth and society is a meaningless artifice. He advocated art as a supreme expression of life and rejected elitist art, believing art was to illuminate every hour of daily life. Alcover’s romantic spirit was evident when he stated that art feeds the feelings of the man who owns all his affairs, and in this sense, poetic inspiration is based on human pain. In short, Alcover advocates an art based on sincerity and humanization.
Cap al tard (Towards the Evening) is Alcover’s first book of poems written in Catalan. He published it in 1909, after a long career as a poet in Spanish. The book’s title alludes to the feeling of being late to authentic poetry, as Alcover was fifty-five years old. The sections that make up the work are:
Songs of the Sierra
“La Balanguera” begins the first section of Cap al tard, “Songs of the Sierra,” motivated by the nostalgia of rural life, the scene of his childhood, the poet being closed off from public life. The “Songs of the Sierra” are born of a desire for freedom and the romantic yearning for direct communication with nature that Alcover experienced when he entered adulthood.
Elegies
The “Elegies” are six poems that reflect the suffering of our author. The poet, in the way of life, has lost the joy of youth and the company of loved ones. But his poems reflect not only his wounds but are distilled in a process of inner purification in which pain has given new meaning to the poet’s life and has given his soul a higher moral dimension. The poet has become the strength of his tragedy; his life will continue to thrive because of the pain he now lives, just to keep alight the memory of those who are no longer there, to mourn their dead and to perpetuate them in their poetry.
Tidbits
The “Tidbits” section consists of ten compositions dedicated to the characters and artists of the time, who frequented the literary gatherings Alcover offered at home on Sunday evenings. These pieces are written in the style of lyrical works that make up each honored. “He Died Young” is dedicated to the Mallorcan poet Emilia Sureda, who died in 1904 in full youth.
Vary
This section includes four poems of patriotic character.