Juan Ramón Jiménez: Stages of His Poetry

Nobel Prize winner in 1956, the poetry of Juan Ramón Jiménez is, in the poet's words, a poem in sequence, a work in progress. The need to provide a sample of the status of his work led the poet to several anthologies: Selected Poems (1917), Second Anthology of Poetry (1922), and Third Anthology of Poetry (1957). The poet himself stated in his later years three stages in his production: Sensitive Time, Intellectual Era (since 1916), and True or Enough Time (since 1936).

Sensitive Time (Up to 1916)

• Intimate Step

  Poetry 'pure' in the sense of simple, intimate, and symbolist modernism. We note the influence of Bécquer and the French Symbolists. Nature, solitude, the passage of time, death, or unsatisfied love are the themes that are enveloped by feelings of sadness and melancholy.

  The main books are Arias tristes (1903) and Remote Gardens (1904).

• More Sharply Modernist

  Dominance of the sensory and rhetorical flourishes. The style is laden with bright color and adjectives; synesthesia and striking images are common. Instead of the octosyllable of the previous stage, he prefers the Alexandrine. But the modernism of Juan Ramón Jiménez is oriented towards intimate contemplation and sentimental confession.

  From this period are Soledad Sonora (1911), Poemas Agrestes (1910-1911), Sonetos Espirituales (1914-1915), and also the book of poetic prose Platero y yo (1914). Laberinto (1913) also shows the path towards JRJ's later metaphysical poetry, and Estío (1916) marks a shift toward conceptual and formally simple poetry.

Intellectual Time (From 1916)

• Naked Poetry

  Expression of experience without rhetorical adornments. The new phase is marked by the publication in 1916 of Diario de un poeta recién casado. The Diario definitively breaks with fin-de-siècle Spanish Modernism and opens the door to avant-garde innovations: free verse, prose poems, chaotic enumerations. He sought to collect all his experiences and express his impressions directly, without hiding under any guise. This is the path to naked poetry. He prefers short, unrhymed poems (free verse).

  From this time are also Eternidades (1918), Piedra y Cielo (1919), Poesía (1923), Belleza (1923). Estación Total, published in Buenos Aires in 1946, collects poems written between 1923 and 1936, including poems of a metaphysical nature that will characterize the last stage.

True or Enough Time (From 1936)

• Final Stage

  From 1936, his poetry moves toward increasing complexity and metaphysics, centered around major themes: poetry, God, and eternity (the profound unity of all existence, a pantheistic view of reality, the consciousness of the poet as a God who gives meaning to the world).

  From this period are Animal de fondo (1946) and Dios deseado y deseante (1948-1949).