The Life and Work of Juan Ramón Jiménez: A Poetic Journey

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Juan Ramón Jiménez
The life and work of JRJ will form part of our Noucentisme Gde1914.
Your personality: he was egocentric and hypersensitive. He sought solitude, reflection, and a quiet life.
From a young age, he knew that his fate was indisputably linked to poetry, to the relentless pursuit of beauty and knowledge through words. JRJ always believed poetry was a minority genre due to the difficulty of language. His work is not as easy to read; its conceptual density grows and becomes inscrutable as it progresses.
Poetic Path
There are several Juan Ramón Jiménezs that correspond to different evolutionary phases of his writing.

1. The Sensitive Period (1986-1915)

Obsession with death inspired his best poetry; he tried to shoo it away with a passionate pursuit of beauty and a desire for identification with the natural world. The foreboding and sadness are the two main themes.

Platero and I

is one of his best works, written in poetic prose, where he critically examines many aspects of Moguer society that he does not like. Stylistically, the given spin is oriented toward a nuanced realism in art, dominated by the descriptive and lyrical language of literary impressionism. The sensitivity and tenderness of JRJ become visible in the intimate dialogue with Platero, which holds the human heart and helps overcome loneliness and sadness. In Platero and I, we find echoes of childhood and youth in Moguer. His eyes now view the outside world from several perspectives: the feelings and the poet denounce the moral, irrational, sordid, and cruel aspects of Spanish life.

2. The Intellectual Period (1915-1936)

Pure poetry, with a lyrical language that seeks to move with maximum accuracy to the essence and meaning of things, the natural expression, sober and stripped of modernist rhetoric, reflects a longing for beauty and truth, as well as the magical moments.

Diary of a Poet

is a key work in his literary career. The trajectory mixes prose and verse, with precise language and clear, direct expression of lived experiences. The various topics include transcendental and subjective themes such as time, love, and death.
The poems revolve around the fear and anxiety that the poet's immensity causes him.
JRJ gives us his impressions of American life in a series of narrative-descriptive prose and poetry sections in the form of a diary. In the end, this overlooks the mocking view of JRJ.

3. The Sufficient or True Period (1936-1958)

JRJ's poetic production in American exile is marked by isolation and depression, emphasizing a contemplative mental note and increasing his effort in the personal quest for absolute truth. In 1957, years after winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, JRJ finally closes his true poetic career with his third anthology.
Meaning
He is regarded by critics as one of the best poets in contemporary Spanish literature.

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