Life and Death in Miguel Hernandez’s Poetry
Life and Death
In all biographies of Miguel Hernandez, one of his greatest passions emerges: the life, jail, and death of a poet. Miguel’s work reflects life itself, encompassing more than just destruction. A vital process overcomes and permeates his work. Many early poems possess a certain insouciance, supporting a conscious and natural optimism.
A Path of Poetry and Life
At this time, his life and work follow distinct paths. The first, his poetic space, is influenced by Jorge Guillen’s concept of essential harmony—the idea that the world is well-made. Many poems pay homage to nature, finding beauty in all life. The poet seeks refuge in classical landscapes, singing of unrequited love. Miguel perceives things as if they are alive. Life here is not death, even if a foretold death arrives with sunsets that diminish the day’s beauty. He is overwhelmed by the affection nature provides.
Melancholy and the First Experience of Death
If any penalty is embedded in his early poetry, it is a literary one, an awareness of life’s fleeting nature. Until Michael experiences the death of loved ones or the impact of war, death remains a literary concept rather than a reality. The first experience of death, that of Lolo, introduces melancholy, a sadness that pervades the poet. This incorporation of melancholy stems from his personality. In Hernandez, life and death intertwine, a painful affair with a tragic outcome. Miguel’s work is filled with life and death, emanating from his heart, destined to live and die. His poetry embodies a tragic vitalism, a fatal premonition.
Life, Death, and Love
Life and death are central to Miguel’s poetry, shaping his worldview. They form a discord that splits his “I.” His experience of love contains a destructive force akin to death. Love represents both death and an irresistible impulse for procreation. Blood, symbolizing an uncontrolled destructive force, is also life because it flows from the heart. In Miguel’s world, pure blood is sacred.
The Poet’s Struggle and the Wounds of Life
The poet’s work constantly challenges the fact of his existence, cast in a baroque style, with death. He offers his eyes, hands, feet, arms, home—everything—with the same freedom he gives to the stalking man. His constant struggle is to achieve fullness in life, experiencing all feelings, especially passionate love. Life and death are part of a sensual and passionate network. Death arrives when love is denied, filling his poems with rage, pain, and metaphorical wounds.
Death, a Recurring Theme
Death as a subject recurs in his poetry, similar to Quevedo, but Miguel views it as tragedy while Quevedo sees tragicomedy. The wounds are inflicted by instruments that please the poet: knives, rays, swords. Spiritual wounds also arise from despair, grief, and shipwreck. Death is a close companion; he witnesses the death of his sisters, his eldest son, friends, and acquaintances. The theme of the dead child becomes a constant pain.
War, Prison, and Resignation
In “Man Lurks,” Miguel turns inward, silent. His intimacy is filled with the grim reality of injuries, deaths, resentment, and endless hatred. War darkens his poems with disappointment and sadness. In jail, he creates a diary of desolation, a collection of poems reflecting the harsh truth of his life. “Songs and Ballads of Absences” reveals the death of his first child, his death sentence, the plagues of prison life, and his absolute solitude. Miguel’s strength and defiance begin to crack as he faces an inevitable end, chronicling the pieces of life he leaves behind. In resignation, his later poems, perhaps the most tender and melancholic, return to love as the only salvation and redemption. The beloved son and the yearning for immortality amidst death give him wings. A presentiment of death hangs over the poet’s tragic fate, with dramatic events intertwined with the idea of death.