Tradition and Vanguard in Miguel Hernandez’s Poetry
Early Works (1925-1931)
Miguel Hernandez’s beginnings as a writer are consistent with those of an apprentice poet who, initially a follower of classical poetry, came to discover his own poetic voice. During this stage, he carefully observed elements of the landscape and nature, admiring poets like Gabriel Miró, Ramón Sijé, Vicente Medina, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Federico García Lorca, and Pedro Salinas. His friend Ramón Sijé introduced him to the classics, and the canon of the Cathedral of Orihuela had a significant influence on his formative literary stage, making his early creations Catholic in nature. In this initial stage, he wrote poetry with varied rhythms and lengths, even incorporating phonetic features of the Panocho dialect. His literary mimicry, reminiscent of Federico García Lorca, is evident in his use of dodecasyllabic verses and stanzas, as well as in the characteristic length of his descriptions of local landscapes. From Salvador Rueda, he adopted a taste for colorful landscapes. His early work shows little originality and few autobiographical references, instead featuring abundant mythological scenes and oriental environments, a result of Romanticism and Modernism.
Perito en Lunas (1932-1934)
In 1931, Miguel Hernandez journeyed to Madrid hoping for recognition of his work. However, he did not achieve this and was forced to return to Orihuela in 1932. To improve, he decided to approach the avant-garde as a way to express himself more adequately and represent his cultural background and human approach through metaphors. A key event was the commemoration of the tercentenary of Góngora’s death in 1927, which brought Hernandez into contact with the poetry of Rafael Alberti, Gerardo Diego, and Jorge Guillén. He was particularly influenced by the pure poetry of Jorge Guillén. He began to cultivate hendecasyllables, octaves, decimas, and elaborate metaphors, which culminated in his book Perito en Lunas. Following the Gongorine path, some of his best models were the Generation of ’27 poets, including Lorca, from whom he received the image of the moon.
El Rayo que no Cesa (1934-1936)
With El Rayo que no Cesa, Hernandez appears as a poet absorbed by the influence of Francisco de Quevedo and Garcilaso de la Vega, who inspired his love poetry. He uses the sonnet to express his most intimate feelings, desires, and agonies, considered an emotional outburst, with a blinding and swift passion like the lightning that gives the book its title. We can also observe the influence of Pablo Neruda and Vicente Aleixandre. In addition to achieving exquisite formal perfection in the sonnet, Hernandez uses other verses like the cuarteta and the “carnivorous knife.” The poem “Written in My Name (Mud Though Miguel Call Me)”, written in silvas, has a tone closer to surrealism, and its images are more negative and depressing than those appearing in the last sonnets. He incorporates the elegy “Elegía a Ramón Sijé” after the sudden and unexpected death of his friend in Orihuela. The poet inserts himself into the literary tradition of funeral elegies, of which we find wonderful examples in Spanish poetry, one of the most emotive being Jorge Manrique’s “Coplas a la Muerte de su Padre.”
Revolutionary Poetry (1937-1939)
His wartime production can be summarized in Viento del Pueblo and El Hombre Acecha. Between the summer of 1936 and the summer of 1937, he wrote Viento del Pueblo, in which we see a writer deeply rooted in the people, echoing their concerns with a strong folk-epic-lyric tone. For Hernandez, poetry is essentially of the people, originating and rooted in the earth itself, and its destiny is now tied to the people’s fate. He becomes a soldier-poet, the husband of a soldier, who is swept away by the events of the war, and his poetry is loaded with the hardness of metal and elements of weapons. At the same time, he carries out a metric renewal, giving way to the silva, the décima, the quatrain, the Alexandrine sonnet, and romances and serventesios with pie quebrado. With these meters, he produces excellent examples of prophetic poetry, tasked with spreading emotions and encouraging life.
Prison and Death (1939-1942)
During this time, he wrote Cancionero y Romancero de Ausencias, published after his death in 1942. Here, his expression reaches maturity, his metaphors achieve high perfection and expressiveness, and he dispenses with anything superfluous or non-essential. Thus, we find a poetry of human truth, shown naked, without artifice. This collection contains poems with a truly intimate voice, thanks to which he departs from literary influences to penetrate the roots of his personal and intimate being. These are short poems composed of short lines, with very traditional meters like canciones, romances, coplas, and seguidillas. Several trends are evident in Hernandez’s poetic work, allowing us to speak of a classicist avant-garde.