Antonio Machado Poetry: Time, Dreams, Solitude and Spain

Poetry of Antonio Machado

Created a poetry of intense emotion and great insight.

He created a poetry of intense emotion and great insight.

1.1 Conception and Poetic Themes

He defined poetry as the dialogue of a man with his time and said that poetic thought is intuitive, lived, and temporary. Time is one of his main themes; others (dreams, love) have a common root: concern with the temporal.

Dreams

Dreams — for him, the only way of knowing what the world is like. In them, boredom is the dominant emotional note. He dreamed of everything, including nature as a projection of the poet himself.

Love

Love — in his works there is little eroticism. In his more bitter poetry he incorporates references to the lack of love, caused by sadness and a sense that the opportunity has passed.

1.2 Soledades, Galerías and Other Poems

Soledades was published in 1903; its second edition (1907) added Galerías, eliminating an overly ornate tone and replacing it with simplicity. One detects the influence of Verlaine in his preference for certain settings: shady gardens and sunsets.

The themes are those of his entire poetic production: the passage of time, dreams, and lost youth. He usually expresses poetic reactions to nature and the problem of death.

In Soledades, dialogue is typical: with the seasons, with the dawn, with the night, and so on.

1.3 Campos de Castilla

Campos de Castilla is a work published in 1912 and subsequently expanded in 1917. It is more direct and referential than symbolic. Although everything is expressed with great emotion, the images now correspond to real landscapes.

Machado directs his gaze outward, toward the landscape, people, and history. The underlying theme of the early poems is the decline of Spain and the character of its inhabitants. In this collection he also confronts the enigma of life and is assailed by religious concerns. It also includes formal and thematic developments.

Proverbs and Songs is a collection of very short poems, mostly judgmental in character; the Parables are of the same type, frequently addressing the problems of the "other."

Seven poems are dedicated to the death of Leonor.

La tierra de Alvargonzález is a romance about human evil. In this criminal tale, which reflects the theme of Cain, Machado adds envy and greed for land as driving forces.

1.4 Subsequent Production

Nuevas Canciones contains some poems reminiscent of Campos de Castilla; in others the Andalusian countryside appears, often with mythological motifs.

This volume abounds in short compositions inspired by folk tradition and in judgmental and aphoristic poems.

At this time also belong the poems addressed to Guiomar and a false songbook.

His poetic work concludes with war poetry.

Key Themes and Notes

• Time: central concern in Machado's poetry.
• Dreams and boredom: recurring motifs that shape emotional tone.
• Love and loss: often treated with melancholy rather than eroticism.
• Landscape and Spain: outward gaze toward people, history, and real landscapes.
• Influences: symbolism and the influence of Verlaine in mood and settings.