Juan Ramón Jiménez: Nobel Laureate and Master of Spanish Modernist Poetry

Biography of Juan Ramón Jiménez (1881–1958)

Born in Moguer (Huelva) in 1881, Juan Ramón Jiménez belonged to a wealthy family that owned vineyards and wineries. He studied with the Jesuits in Puerto de Santa María and later moved to Seville to study painting and begin a degree in Philosophy and Letters. From the age of fifteen, he wrote poetry and soon devoted himself fully to it.

He arrived in Madrid in 1900 and came into contact with the literary and bohemian life, but soon tired of that atmosphere and returned to Moguer before summer. The death of his father in July of that year resulted in a strong depression, leading to his admission to a mental hospital in France and later in Madrid.

In 1916, he traveled to the U.S. to marry Zenobia Camprubí. As a result of his stay and travels in this country, one of his most original works, Diario de un poeta recién casado (Diary of a Newly Married Poet), was born. Juan Ramón and Zenobia lived in Madrid until 1936, when they went into exile due to the Spanish Civil War, living subsequently in New York, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and returning again to New York.

During this period, Juan Ramón again suffered from depression and had to be hospitalized. He famously refused to speak English, complicating communication with doctors. In 1956, Juan Ramón was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Tragically, Zenobia died three days later. Juan Ramón Jiménez died on May 29, 1958.

The Essence of JRJ's Poetic Imagery

Juan Ramón was a man exclusively devoted to poetry, the central passion of his life. Through poetry, he searched for and attempted to translate his concept of beauty. Much of his poetry, especially his early work, is characterized by a feeling of sadness, often explained as a result of the profound solitude in which the poet lived.

Alongside this melancholy, Juan Ramón's poetry expressed a profound desire for eternity, which led to the search for God—a God found in nature and within man, the poet. The ultimate goal of the poet was the dream of poetic eternity.

Career Stages and Major Works

Juan Ramón Jiménez's body of work is vast and complex. The author himself reduced his career stages to three distinct periods:

1. Sensitive Stage: Includes early works, some of which he described as "pure poetry," and others showing strong Modernist influence.
2. Intellectual Stage: Coincides with the stage of "naked poetry" (poesía desnuda), represented especially by the seminal work Diario de un poeta recién casado.
3. Sufficient Stage (or Last Stage): Begins in 1936, coinciding with the poet's second trip to the United States and subsequent exile.

Formally, these books utilized the romance meter, free verse, and poetry in prose. The language tends toward simplicity, though elements of the Baroque style appear at times.