Spanish Poets: Cernuda, Alonso, and Aleixandre
Luis Cernuda (1902-1963)
Luis Cernuda was born in Seville. He went into exile after the Civil War, living in England and America, and finally died in Mexico. His work is characterized by a grave tone, a deep and sincere passionate intimacy (homosexual), and an often elegiac poetry that conveys authenticity. His verses are lyrically dense and offer the desolate feeling of the poet in a rough or violent and nostalgic context.
Key Works:
- Reality and Desire (1936): Includes all his work up to that point, including two books (Forbidden Pleasures and Where Oblivion Dwells). It is framed within pure poetry and surrealism, with themes of love, death, and loneliness treated at length in a romantic style.
- Ocnos (1942): Prose poems in which he recalls his childhood and early adulthood.
- Desolation of the Chimera (1962): Deals with the exile that has lost its identity.
Dámaso Alonso (1898-1990)
Dámaso Alonso was born and died in Madrid. His whole life was devoted to philological studies, to which we owe the rediscovery of Góngora. He stayed in Spain and was director of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE). Initially, he wrote in the line of pure poetry, but after the war, he gave a radical turn to social poetry.
Key Works:
- Pure Poems: Or Poemillas of the City, simple poems written under the influence of Juan Ramón Jiménez.
- Children of Wrath (1944): The content is equivalent to a burst of impotent rage at his own misery and the pain of the surrounding world. It is written in verses with original images of intensity and sincerity, and it dramatically influenced all post-war Spanish poetry.
- Man and God: Characterized by the high density of its themes. His philological studies as a researcher and critic opened new avenues of study and understanding of Spanish prose. These studies show both rigor and erudition, and demonstrate great aesthetic sensibility.
Vicente Aleixandre (1898-1984)
Vicente Aleixandre was born in Seville and died in Madrid. Although he remained in Spain during the war, he stayed away from official culture, which might be called an internal exile. His style ranges from surrealism to social concern, with a simple and straightforward approach. He received the Nobel Prize in 1977, which should be considered a tribute to the entire Generation of ’27.
Key Works:
- Passion of the Earth (1928): Characterized by surrealism.
- Swords Like Lips (1932): Stormy and passionate, marked by surrealism.
- Destruction or Love (1933): A pessimistic pantheism is warned, with a loving impulse that makes way for the destruction of the individual and a merger with the great cosmic force desired by the poet, so that man’s life is hurt, sadness, and heartache.
- Shadow of Paradise (1944): Here, he evokes serene melancholy, pain, and human defilement. A perfect world of beauty is not found among pain.
- History of the Heart (1954) and In a Vast Domain (1962): In these two works, he focuses on more sensible realities with straightforward language.
- Poem of Consummation (1968) and Dialogues of Knowledge (1974): Presents a serious and meditative tone. Somehow, most parts of the original notes of contemporary Spanish lyric have their origins in the romantic and dynamic vision of Aleixandre and the beauty of the poetic language of his first books.