Symbolism and Modernism in Poetry
Origins and Characteristics
Poetic modernism originated in mid-19th century France with Parnassianism and Symbolism. Parnassian poets advocated for objective poetry, detached from feelings and ideologies, often evoking ancient cultures and exotic settings. By the 1870s, a shift occurred towards a new language based on suggestion. In 1886, the term “Symbolism” was introduced, representing an attempt to replace reality in poetry with the idea, translating a subjective view of reality through sensitivity. Symbolists favored the use of symbols over direct representation.
Modernism in Latin America and Spain
Modernism emerged as a subversive force in Latin America, resisting commercialism and advocating for decolonization. It involved experimentation with language and literary forms, a flight from space and time in search of a universal present, and an inclination towards the past, distant lands, and the exotic. Cosmopolitanism was embraced, enriching poetic language with foreign words, Americanisms, archaisms, and neologisms. Modernists pursued impressionistic effects through synesthesia, chromaticism, and musicality.
In late 19th and early 20th century Spain, societal circumstances favored rebellion. The sense of crisis deepened with the Cuban liberation movement and the disaster of 1898. Literary magazines showed symptoms of change, with figures like Juan Ramón Jiménez, the Machado brothers, and Ramón Valle-Inclán gaining prominence. Unamuno acknowledged the modernist current, but not all followed Rubén Darío. The best Spanish poets displayed unique features, but the peak of Spanish Modernism was short-lived as writers turned to metaphysical and transcendental themes, focusing on tradition and Spanish reality. This shift led to themes of loneliness, historical marginalization, and powerlessness, resulting in a decadent Symbolism.
Rubén Darío
Born in Nicaragua, Rubén Darío was a precocious poet, cosmopolitan, and lover of pleasure. His travels promoted Modernism. His poetic production began with Epistles and Poems.
Azul (1888)
This book creates a world of fairies, princesses, and centaurs, filled with exotic objects and aristocratic refinement. The Parnassian influence implies a rejection of bourgeois reality. The work is rich in unexpected images, bold adjectives, and a sensual tone. Key symbols include blue (color of dreams) and the swan (charm of chivalry, purity).
Prosas Profanas (1896)
This work features metrical and verbal innovations. Social concerns reappear, including Spanish themes like the exaltation of Andalusia, though the main theme remains erotic pleasure, alongside sacrifice and grief. The female image takes on various natural forms (tiger, dove).
Songs of Life and Hope
Here, Darío’s expression becomes more sober, reflecting his foray into politics. Key themes include the problems of the Hispanic world and existential reflection. He addresses pre-Columbian civilizations and the American present, looking to the north and rejecting the notion of its superiority over Hispanic civilization. Some compositions express exhaustion and bitterness.
Antonio Machado
Born in Seville, Machado sided with the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War and was forced into exile. His work incorporates symbolist techniques, creating intense emotion. He was interested in lived time, his poetry born from temporal anguish. He uses temporal overlap, where overlapping times don’t compare, evoking melancholy. Sleep is a form of knowledge, encompassing dreams of both man and nature. Eroticism is minimal; the beloved rarely appears as a sexual object, but rather as ethereal.
Soledades
This work shows Verlaine’s influence. Themes include the passage of time, dreams, lost youth, nature, and death. Dialogue is characteristic, along with an obsessive preoccupation with time.
Campos de Castilla
: The underlying theme is the decline of Spain, the character of its inhabitants. It also confronts the enigma of life and assailed religious concerns, including new topics: proverbs and songs, poems set of brief, pithy character, and the parables of the kind in which the problem of the other haunts. It includes seven poems about the death of Leonor.
The long romance of the land of overflows in history embrace envy and greed for land.
PRODUCTION POTERIOR.: The New Songs poems highlight the Andalusian countryside, often with mythological motifs, also in this period include Songs to Guiomar and a songbook apocryphal. The poet’s work concludes with a score of articles called Poems of War.