Key Poets of Spain's Generation of '27

Pedro Salinas

Poetry is a way to get to the essence of things and life experiences.

Topics

• Love: finding the central facts of existence.
• Desire for understanding and knowledge.

Style

• Contrast.
• Importance of the rhythm of dialogue and action.
• Short verse.

Stages

1. Influence of pure poetry, Creationism, and Futurism.
2. Covers the trilogy of love: La voz a ti debida, Razón de amor, and Largo lamento, which form a song of love.
3. Developed in exile.

Works

• Presagios
• Seguro azar
• La voz a ti debida
• Razón de amor
• Largo lamento

Jorge Guillén

His work is a rigorous poetic selection process which suppresses the accessory to communicate the essential idea or feeling. He grouped his poetry until 1968 under the title Aire nuestro, including Cántico, Clamor, and Homenaje.

Topics

• Joyous affirmation of being.
• Love.
• Wholeness.
• Time.
• Chance.
• Chaos.

Style

• Uses very condensed and precise language.
• Utilizes varied metrics.

Works

• Cántico: The sight of reality causes joy in the poetic voice. Man must find a balance.
• Clamor
• Homenaje

Gerardo Diego

Thematic and formal variety in his production. Embraces different styles and trends: from traditional forms to the boldest avant-garde experimentation.

Types of Poetry

• Traditional Poetry: Supports directly into rich reality. Links with tradition and corresponds to the first stage of production.
• Avant-garde Poetry: Includes books with avant-garde styles.

Works

• Initially: El romance de la novia.
• Avant-garde works: Imagen (Creationist stage), Manual de espuma (Attempted imitation of Cubism).

Federico García Lorca

Themes and Style

• Love.
• Death.
• Childhood and Innocence.
• Social themes, social constraints.
• Use of symbols and imagery (moon, metals, blood, water, horse).
• Musicality, classical and free verse forms.

Works

• Libro de poemas
• Romancero gitano
• Poema del cante jondo
• Llanto por Ignacio Sánchez Mejías
• Poeta en Nueva York
• Diván del Tamarit
• Sonetos del amor oscuro

Rafael Alberti

Themes and Style

• Nostalgia for lost paradise (sea, exile).
• Anxiety.
• Social concern.

Works

• Marinero en tierra
• La amante
• El alba del alhelí
• Cal y canto
• Sobre los ángeles
• Entre el clavel y la espada
• A la pintura
• Retornos de lo vivo lejano
• Roma, peligro para caminantes

Luis Cernuda

Themes and Style

• Love.
• Loneliness.
• Time.
• Nature.
• Mixture of classical and modern forms.
• Use of visionary imagery, metaphors, and symbols.

Works

• La realidad y el deseo (Collects all his poetry)
• Perfil del aire
• Los placeres prohibidos
• Donde habite el olvido
• Como quien espera el alba
• Vivir sin estar viviendo
• Con las horas contadas
• Desolación de la Quimera

Vicente Aleixandre

Themes and Style

• Erotic love as a vital impulse leading to destruction.
• Nature as a source of life and cosmic reality with which man must fuse in a pantheistic conception.
• Versicles with brief or extended lines.

Works

• Espadas como labios
• La destrucción o el amor
• Sombra del paraíso
• Historia del corazón
• Poemas de la consumación