Core Themes in Antonio Machado's Poetry

1. Time

Antonio Machado identified himself as a "poet of time," understanding time not as an abstract concept but as something living and personal. It is the limited, individual history of each person, which exists and passes, yet remains in memory. Within memory, personal boundaries and anecdotes blur, leaving behind universal, refined sentiment. The poet expresses a keen sensitivity to time, facing the fatal passage of hours and days.

Symbols of Time:

• Water: The flow of a river symbolizes the passage of time and, consequently, inner life. However, water can also represent death.
• Afternoon: Expresses a melancholy feeling, a spiritual voice.
• Roads: Symbols of life or associated with it. When depicted in a poem, the road often blurs, clearing into the distance, ahead, beyond anything we can articulate. Simultaneously, it becomes a source of melancholy, which, through dreams, brings back memories of the past.
• Landscape Elements and Lived Time: Through time, the poet relates to things, and they acquire a new, personal meaning connected to the experience surrounding them. They are transformed into mirrors reflecting the state of the soul.
• The Clock: A real object that measures chronological time.

2. Death

Machado's thoughts on death logically derive from his concerns about time, viewing time as the great destroyer of human beings. His attitude towards death is diverse: ranging from the personal anguish expressed in many poems from Solitudes, to melancholy and even rebellion against the death of his wife, and extending to spiritual identification with the dying. Symbols related to death are numerous, including the sea, autumn, shadow, and the moon.

3. God

This concerns a God in whom one cannot believe, even if desired. It is the longed-for, dreamed-of God, the wished-for God.

4. Memory and Dream

For Machado, memory and dream are often equivalent, as they frequently refer to daydreaming about life itself.

5. Love

Love is presented as an ennobling sentiment that dignifies the lover, granting a better understanding and spiritual exaltation of beauty in the world. It rescues things from oblivion, time, and death.

6. The Autobiographical Theme

Machado often evokes his childhood, loves, and youth in his poetry. However, this experience appears not just externally but, more importantly, spiritually.

7. The Landscape and the Theme of Spain

In some poems, Machado's vision of the landscape is purely objective. In others, however, the landscape becomes a symbol of Castile's historical past, or elements of the Castilian landscape are transformed into symbols of intimate realities.