Pedro Salinas: Life, Works, and the Generation of ’27
Pedro Salinas: Life and Work
Pedro Salinas: Pedro Salinas studied law, philosophy, and letters, and devoted his life to university teaching. He married Margarita Bonmatí in 1915. Salinas wrote a love letter to her every day, which was reflected in his epistolary love letters to Margarita. In 1918, Salinas became a professor at the University of Seville. He was later appointed professor at the Central School of Languages, where he met an American student named Katherine. She became the subject of his poetic trilogy: Voice Due You, Love and Reason Largo Sorry. This romance continued even after Katherine returned to America to pursue her studies. Salinas’s wife discovered the affair and attempted suicide.
Salinas’s Literary Output
Salinas wrote intellectual poetry, conceived as a dialogue between the poet and the world or the beloved. This dialogue allowed access to the essence of things, beyond external appearances. His style is anti-rhetorical, using familiar, everyday language, simple images, and light rhythms, with short verses, without rhyme or assonance. His career can be divided into three stages:
- Initial Stage: Marked by avant-garde influences, with works such as Omens, Secure Chance, and Fabula and Sign.
- Second Stage: Dominated by the theme of love, with the aforementioned trilogy establishing him as a great love poet. Love appears as a powerful force that organizes and gives meaning to the world. It represents the correspondence between the essential and genuine aspects of lovers, beyond the superficial or anecdotal. The language is conceptual and dense.
- Third Stage: Corresponds to works written in exile, such as That Referred To, a dialogue with the sea of Puerto Rico.
The Generation of ’27
The term ‘Generation of ’27’ refers to a group of poets that emerged in the 1920s, coinciding with the avant-garde movement. The name comes from the year a tribute to Góngora was held, with the participation of the entire group. Several factors contributed to the cohesion of the Generation of ’27:
- They met at the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid, where they absorbed a liberal, European-educated atmosphere.
- They had a strong literary background; most were professors of literature and published important critical essays.
- They shared strong personal friendships, leading to collaborations in numerous magazines and cultural projects.
- They revered Juan Ramón Jiménez, admiring his ideal of pure poetry, the depth of his images, and his determined effort to express feelings.
Literary Influences
The poetic careers of these authors were shaped by similar circumstances and influences:
- Spanish Literary Tradition: They drew from three complementary aspects: the Golden Age classics, the poetic tradition of Bécquer, and traditional Castilian ballads. Some early works are classified as neo-folk poetry.
- The Avant-Garde: The importance of the image and metaphor came from Creationism and Ultraism. There was also a trend toward pure, intellectual, or “dehumanized” poetry.
- Impure Poetry: In 1934, Pablo Neruda came to Spain and founded the magazine Green Horse for Poetry, which published a manifesto for a more “impure” poetry, closer to reality.
The Spanish Civil War led to the disintegration of the group. Federico García Lorca was assassinated in the early months of the war. Some went into exile, while others remained in Spain. Each followed their own poetic path, but the deep trauma caused by the conflict is evident in their work.