Miguel Hernández: Imagery, Themes, and Social Commitment
Image and Symbol in the Poetry of Miguel Hernández
Miguel Hernández’s poems in his formative years (1924-1931) showcase images taken directly from his environment in Orihuela. In the words of José Luis Ferris, these include the lemon and the well. He speaks of erotic desire in the guise of pastoral poetry. In Perito en lunas (1933), symbols include the bull, representing sacrifice, and the palm, an element of the Mediterranean landscape. In El rayo que no cesa (1936), the main theme is love, and the beam becomes a symbol of fire and blood, representing sexual desire. However, not all the poems in El rayo que no cesa are successful. Some speak of a more fulfilling sexual relationship. In Viento del pueblo (1937), he writes poetry as a weapon of struggle. Those who are cowardly and resigned are identified as an ox. The poets look back, caring for the suffering. The contrast between rich and poor is given in their hands. After his marriage to Josefina Manresa, he puts the emphasis on motherhood. The symbol, therefore, will be the belly. In El hombre acecha (1939), we find the theme of man as beast, and consequently, fangs and claws. The poems are about the disasters of war. The two Spains, faced, appear in Hunger. Blood appears, represented simply as pain. In Cancionero y romancero de ausencias, it begins with the death of his first child. Hope is reborn with the coming of a new child; in this new child is symbolized the survival of the poet. In prison, the last war is like a bad dream, death, symbolized by the sea.
Life, Love, and Death in the Poetry of Miguel Hernández
Within the work of Miguel Hernández, we highlight three major themes: life, love, and death. These three themes accompany the poet in a life marked by suffering and the subsequent civil war periods in jail. With the theme of love, we could say that all of Miguel’s poetry is about love, since none of his poems is outside the meaning of love. The poet begins to find true love when he meets his future wife, clearly reflected in El rayo que no cesa, his first big book of love sonnets. His beloved Josefina Manresa, denied sexual love before marriage, initiates a sense of grief and tragedy in Miguel’s poetry. In 1937, he married Josefina and acquires a maturity about love that is reflected in his poetry. His last production, Cancionero y romancero de ausencias, can be viewed as a journal where the absence is the only basis: the absence of justice, the absence of love, and the absence of freedom. The themes of life and death are closely linked. Miguel is full of life and death. On the one hand, life is more clearly present in his first stage as a poet. On the other hand, death is an event not far from the poet’s own experiences, as three of his sisters and his eldest son died a few months after birth. It is also known that his friend Ramón Sijé died. Finally, it is in Cancionero y romancero de ausencias where Miguel provides a greater link between these two concepts. Imprisoned, deprived of hope, and only communicated with his beloved by letter, is where the poet takes on the fate of a mortal and perishable love.
Social and Political Commitment in the Poetry of Miguel Hernández
In March 1934, Miguel travels to Madrid for the second time. In 1935, he wrote El rayo que no cesa, but it was published in 1936. Given the soaring illiteracy rates, Miguel Hernández’s social commitment begins. Soon, the outbreak of the civil war in July 1936 forced Miguel to take the step to political commitment. Viento del pueblo was published in Valencia in 1937. This means that the lyrical poems give way to the epic, and the poet assumes a prophetic role. This function is structured in three tones: Exaltation, Lamentation, and Imprecation. The tone of exaltation is the dominant tone of the people, while the voice dominates much of his poems. He excites and encourages day laborers, harvesters, farmers, or emblematic figures of the struggle. The tone of lamentation also mythologizes lyrical subjects. The mourning also charges other nuances: in the tone poems of lament, social serves to express the intimate identification. The tone of imprecation involves denigrating and insulting the cowards who bully the people. This sharp contrast between the exaltation of the people and the curse of the tyrant appears dramatically articulated.