Great Poets of the Spanish Generation of '27

Federico García Lorca

Born in Granada in 1898, Federico García Lorca spent his life alternating between Madrid and Granada. He traveled to the U.S. during a personal crisis, where he formed a negative impression of the country. He directed the theater group La Barraca (The Cabin) during the Republic. Tragically, he was killed in Granada.

Central Themes and Major Works

The central themes of Lorca's poetry include frustration, love, death, and rebellion. His literary career began with his first book, Book of Poems (1921), followed by Poema del cante jondo, Suites, and Songs.

Between 1924 and 1927, he composed his Gypsy Ballads, one of the pinnacles of his poetry. These works are welded together by learned tradition, daring modernism, and popular rhythms. His poems regarding the U.S. are collected in Poet in New York, which serves as a complaint against capitalist society.

Rafael Alberti

Rafael Alberti was born in Cádiz in 1902. A painter and poet, he won the National Literature Prize in 1925. A spiritual crisis led him to find new meaning in life through social and political commitment, eventually joining the Communist Party. He had a significant relationship with María Teresa de León. At the end of the Civil War, he marched into exile, returning only after Franco died. He passed away in 1999, standing out primarily as a poet.

The Four Stages of Alberti's Poetry

• Initial Books: Marinero en tierra (Remembering your childhood), The Lover, and The Dawn of the Wallflower (an avant-garde, cheerful interpretation of tradition).
• Vintage Avant-garde: Cal y canto, which includes Futurist poems.
• For the Republic: With shoes on I have to die (where surrealist aesthetics serve as a template for revolutionary ideals), A specter is haunting Europe, and 13 bands and 14 stars.
• During the Exile: These works are very diverse in issues and rhythms. Notable titles include Among the carnation and the sword and Verses of John Baker. Themes include childhood, friendship, and love; a sense of disappointment regarding his life's path is visible in Sobre los ángeles.

Luis Cernuda

Born in Seville in 1902, Luis Cernuda was a Bachelor of Law who supported the Republic. He lived in exile in various locations. He wrote several titles before the Civil War, which were collected in the play The Reality and the Desire. After this, he presented his works as successions of this main book.

Manuel Altolaguirre

Manuel Altolaguirre is recognized as a significant figure belonging to this specific literary time and movement.

Miguel Hernández

Born in 1910 in Alicante within a humble social environment, Miguel Hernández sought to break into the literary world, which led him to Madrid. His relationship with Pablo Neruda influenced his ideological evolution toward leftist political commitment on behalf of the Republic. After the war, he was moved from jail to jail and eventually died of tuberculosis.

Key Literary Contributions

• Proficient in Moons (Perito en lunas): His first book, written in the Góngora style with a desire to emulate the Baroque.
• The Ray Does Not Stop (El rayo que no cesa): This work marks the crucial discovery of love, seen as a primitive force with accents of manly pride and peasant life. It is an expression of uninhibited eroticism using a Baroque lexicon.
• Rehumanization of Lyrics: His poetry approaches elemental nature. The impurity of poetic accents is evident in poetry composed during the Civil War.
• The Man Who Stalks (El hombre acecha): A work reflecting the profound pain of war.