Spanish Civil War Poetry: A Literary and Historical Analysis
Main Orientations of Civil War Poetry
Lyric poetry production significantly increased after the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), influenced by the 1936 ideological propaganda. Different moments in Miguel Hernández’s career are evident: from social poetry to pure poetry, and from aestheticism to avant-garde experimentation. Historical circumstances shaped these changes: the 1940s saw neoclassical (exaltation), nationalist (evasion), existentialist (distress), and avant-garde (continuation of pre-war styles) trends. The 1950s brought socially engaged poetry, used as an ideological weapon and a means of complaint.
Miguel Hernández: Poet of Transition
Miguel Hernández represents a transition between cutting-edge innovation and rehumanization. His poetry is characterized by emotion, human content, and technically perfect verses. Themes include love (erotic-romantic desire and unfulfilled longing), death and pain (personal experience and social reality), and hope and life (vitality, solidarity, and future aspirations). His career shows a classical influence (Góngora, Garcilaso) alongside contemporary influences (Antonio Machado, Neruda), marked by an ideological evolution from Catholicism to Republican and Communist militancy.
First Stage (1933-1936)
Perito en lunas (1933) displays a unique poetic language, influenced by Góngora and the avant-garde. It features 40 octaves, focusing on secrecy and descriptions of natural objects and everyday items. El rayo que no cesa (1936) explores the inability to fully love due to moral constraints, utilizing sonnets, tercets, and songs.
Second Stage (1936-1939)
This period features politically engaged works, influenced by Pablo Neruda’s socially conscious poetry. Vientos del pueblo (1937) expresses anguish and protest against the suffering of the people, while El hombre acecha (1938) reflects disillusionment and sadness caused by war and famine.
Last Poems (1939-1942)
Written in prison, these poems, including Cancionero y romancero de ausencias, explore themes of absence—children, women, freedom—and hope, focusing on love for his child and wife, and the desire for emotional and erotic fulfillment. Symbols include the belly and female sexuality (center, shelter, mastery); lightning and fire (passion, wound); the bull (virility, passion, freedom, death); emptiness, darkness, and night (death); weapons (aggression, pain); and the moon (change, vitality, fertility).
Poetry in Exile
Poets in exile, particularly those influenced by the Spanish Civil War and dictatorship, produced works expressing anguish and continuing modernist trends while rescuing the pain of the past generation. This included poets such as Salinas, Cernuda, Guillén, Alberti, Altolaguirre, Prados, and Jorge Guillén (representing the avant-garde).
Emilio Prados
Prados’s poetry is characterized by melancholy, a search for unity and harmony, and themes of loneliness, influenced by Symbolism (light) and Surrealism.
Manuel Altolaguirre
Altolaguirre showed limited interest in the avant-garde, preferring classical influences (Garcilaso). His poetry is a source of knowledge, marked by loneliness, religious anxieties, and nostalgia.
León Felipe
Influenced by World War II, León Felipe addressed the human condition, injustice, and lawlessness.
1940s Poetry
Neoclassical Poetry
Neoclassical poetry, rooted in tradition, focused on love, religion, and empire. Luis Rosales’s work (La casa del padre, 1949) explored religious themes and everyday life. Leopoldo Panero’s intimate poetry touched upon family, earth, God, and time (Escritura del minuto, 1949).
Existentialist Poetry
Existentialist poetry emphasized rehumanization and religiosity. It questioned the meaning of existence, often finding it meaningless. The magazine Espadaña (1944) promoted human solidarity. Dámaso Alonso’s Hijos de la ira (Children of Wrath) used powerful imagery to depict existential angst, focusing on man’s confrontation with death and injustice.
Avant-Garde Poetry
Post-war avant-garde poetry, including Postismo (El Búmeran and other Postismo publications), sought surprise and the disruption of logic, employing humor and playful language. The group explored irrational imagery, combining avant-garde aesthetics with formal refinement and cultural themes.
1950s Poetry
The 1950s saw a socially engaged poetry, using colloquial language and everyday prose to denounce reality. This included the existential poetry of José Hierro and Gabriel Celaya, whose work (Movimiento elemental, 1947) revealed the world to the reader. Social poetry adopted a simple, colloquial tone, expressing solidarity and using literature as a tool for social struggle (Conversación Tranquila, 1947).
Avant-Garde Poetry (1950s)
Avant-garde poetry in the 1950s showed thematic variety, exploring metaphysical love and acknowledging the failure of Marxist humanism. Experimental works incorporated mathematical nuances (El derecho y la semántica, 1963; Campos de revés, 1971).
Blas de Otero
Blas de Otero’s work evolved from existential themes to a socially engaged purpose, aiming to awaken consciences and share the collective tragedy. His existential poetry expressed man’s anguish toward death, showing a poetic confrontation between man and God (Ángel fieramente humano, 1958). His social poetry used words as protest and peace, opposing death and injustice (Pido la paz y la palabra, 1955). His later poetry became reflective, meditating on truth from a personal perspective (Relatos falsos y verdaderos, 1970).