The Generation of '27: Guillén, Diego, and Aleixandre's Poetics

Jorge Guillén: Poetic Rigor and Vital Affirmation

Guillén's poetry employs a rigorous selection process, deleting accessory elements to communicate the essential idea or feeling.

Themes and Style

• Joyous affirmation of being.
• Existence in the reality of love.
• Life formed as vital accomplishment and perfection.
• The necessity of enjoying the present time and surrounding conditions.

Man's Condition

• Man (living at the center of the day).
• Chance (creates insecurity).
• Chaos (suffering).

Features of Guillén's Poetry

• Very condensed and precise language.
• Use of simple syntactic structures.
• Nominal style.
• Use of exclamations and questions that highlight vital sensations.

Major Work: Cántico (1928, 1936, 1945, 1950)

A song to the creation of reality, occurring in different aspects: objective-subjective, material and spiritual, everyday things and major concerns. The central theme is reality and its relationship with man, where positive and negative are in conflict. Man must find the balance that characterizes his relationship with the world.

Gerardo Diego: Formal Variety and Avant-Garde Experimentation

Diego's work is characterized by formal variety, encompassing diverse themes, styles, and tendencies, ranging from traditional forms to avant-garde experimentation.

Themes and Style

• Love, landscape, experiences, memories, bulls, religion, and tradition.
• Combined with cutting-edge musicality.

Literary Characteristics

• Blank verse.
• Visual image metric disposition (in sonnets or *décimas*).
• Juxtaposition of phrases.
• Fragmentation of impressions.

Poetic Stages and Works

Relative Poetry (1917–1920)

Influenced by Bécquer and Juan Ramón Jiménez.

• Iniciales.
• Romances de la novia (dedicated to Machado).
• Nocturnos de Chopin.

Absolute Poetry or Creation Poetry

Books reflecting 20th-century avant-garde influence.

• Imagery: Cubism, connotative value of words, musicality, layout.
• Key Work: Manual de espuma (Manual of Foam).

Vicente Aleixandre: Love, Destruction, and Surrealism

Themes and Style

• Love: An erotic and vital impulse that often leads to destruction.
• Nature: A source of life; man must try to merge with the elements of nature (Pantheistic conception).

Poetic Style

Surrealism, featuring irrational imagery and criticism, often leading to the closed nature of the texts. Uses verses (hendecasyllables combined with shorter or extended lines).

Stages of Aleixandre's Poetry

1. Surrealist influence.
2. Idealistic humanism and solidarity with men (Metaphysical poetry).
3. Internal reflection.

Key Works

Espadas como labios (Swords Like Lips)

Characterized by Neo-Romantic and Surrealist elements.

• Features: Irrational images, elimination of punctuation, free verse.
• Theme: Love as a destructive force.

La destrucción o el amor (Destruction or Love)

• Theme: Love as a cosmic, vital destructive force.
• Stylistic Highlights: Visionary imagery, comparative structures, repetition, comparisons, and complex structural constraints.