Luis Cernuda, Miguel Hernández, Rafael Alberti: Spanish Poets

Luis Cernuda (1902-1963)

Born in Seville, Cernuda also lived in Madrid and Salinas. As a student, he strengthened his friendship with members of the Generation of '27. He supported the wartime Republic. In 1938, he exiled himself to Mexico and never returned. A personality characterized by a lonely and painful sensitivity, he was vulnerable. His homosexual condition may explain his disagreement with the world and his rebellion, which is reflected in his life and his work.

Themes

• Loneliness
• Longing for a habitable world
• Craving for perfect beauty
• Love, reflecting the influence of Romantic writers

Style

His poetic language emerges from a triple rejection: of rhythms that are too marked, of rhyme, and of language rich in bright images.

Work

The Reality and Desire, though it lies in various stages:

1. Plays, profile air of / Eclogue, elegy, and ode (Garcilaso)
2. Surrealism: A River, A Love
3. The Forbidden Pleasures

No personal tone: Where Oblivion Dwells.

Miguel Hernández (1910-1942)

Hernández serves as a bridge between two stages of Spanish poetry. Aside from his poetry, he had contacts with members of the Generation of '27. A "great imitator" of those poets, because of his age, he is sometimes included in the Generation of '36. He was an exceptional poet, combining the strength of inspiration with rigorous art. His verse makes the most human tone to the heart, though it sprouts wrapped in formal perfection.

Topics

• Love for the woman and child
• Death and pain
• Life and hope
• Erotic symbols: belly and female sex
• Symbols: weapons, bull, and the moon

Work

1. First stage: influence and search for his own style. Perito on Moons, in octaves (Gongorine hermetic fashion, metaphorical elaboration). Lightning Does Not Stop (mostly composed of poetic sonnets. The book Elegia Ramon is Sijé)
2. Second stage: influence of Neruda's impure poetry. Wind of the People (we wind of the people are born to go blowing through their pores, the most beautiful summits). Aceituneros. The Man Stalks (pain for the tragedy of war)
3. Last poems, written in prison, inspired by popular lyrics. Absences Songs and Ballads. The theme of women's pain for the absence of the son of liberty. The most beautiful poem: Nanas of the Onion

Rafael Alberti (1902-1999)

Born in Port Santa María, he had a hobby for painting, but opted for literary creation, fueled by his contacts in La Residencia de Estudiantes with other members of the Generation. He joined the Communist Party during the Civil War. He went into exile in Argentina and Rome until his return to Spain in 1978. He won the Cervantes Prize in 1983 and the National Literature Prize in 1925.

Work

He worked in prose and drama. The variety of tones, themes, and styles alternate between neopopularismo poetry, the baroque, avant-garde, surrealism, social poetry, and exile poetry.

Themes

• Nostalgia: first for the lost paradise of their land, and later for their country.
• Anxiety: that nostalgia leads to distress.
• The social: the political situation of Spain.

Style

Plastic and numerous images, musicality, and connotative language.

Works by Stages

1. Neopopularismo: Sailor on Shore (poetry of short verses, ballads, carols... is agile, graceful). The Lover (tone even more popular, is a daily poetic love). Wallflower Dawn (reflected the hard life of peoples and the vanguards).
2. Gongorismo: Andalucia, Stone (including poems of clear homage to Gongorine fashion and other futuristic compositions). I Was a Fool and What I Have Seen Has Made Me Two Fools (dedicated to silent films).
3. Surrealism: About Los Angeles (surreal image lends itself to express a deep internal distress, symbolizes sadness, hopelessness, death). The metric of the first half of the book is short verse, while in the second part, the verse dominates.
4. Poetry in exile: Returns of I Live Far Away and Rome, Danger to Walkers.