Miguel Hernández: Life, Death, and Poetic Evolution

Between the life and work of the poet, there is a very close relationship. Miguel Hernández's (MH) work is like a life with its initial stammering, its moments of youthful drive, assertiveness, and his boasts of convictions that have no choice but to accept reality as a penalty, as a succession of injuries. Death, a fundamental problem in life and poetry, takes a dominant role in most of these early-stage poems. They reflect a vital and upbeat attitude, his desire to devote himself to poetry, his admiration for certain poets, and so on.

Early Poetic Stages: Vitality and Literary Allusion

Until Moons Expert in, the subject of death is primarily a literary allusion, an appeal from a poet who is guided by nature as a source of expertise and presents his work as a project of life devoted to reading and writing.

The Inseparable Dichotomy: Love, Loss, and The Ray That Does Not Stop

It is from The Ray That Does Not Stop when life and death shape an inseparable dichotomy. The fatalism stemming from the treatment of the love affair in The Ray That Does Not Stop and the real death of Ramón Sijé, before which the poet is desperate and desolate, are laden with intense elegy and establish an inseparable connection between emotional love sonnets and the love poem dedicated to his soulmate.

Later Works: Grief, Resignation, and the Hope of Immortality

Death would still be present in the life and work of MH with the death of his son in 1938, within months of birth. This death was a merciless blow to the heart of a man who, having survived a coup, was unfortunately away from his family and alone. The consequence of this injury are numerous poems in Songbook of Absences, which reflects this feeling of inconsolable loss. The tragic coincidence of father and son, both with eyes open due to a common disease, is a story often associated with MH's death.

His strength and rebellion began to crumble, and MH saw an inevitable end. He sang of the pieces of life left on the road, the agony of flight, the sadness of war, weapons, and men. This marked a time of resignation. However, his later poems are perhaps the most tender and melancholy of his entire Hernandiana work. This completes the cycle back to love, for there is no salvation, no redemption possible without love. His beloved son constantly appears, an infinite yearning that, even as life ebbs, breathes with the hope of immortality. Love gives wings to the poet, as seen in the poem "Flight." MH filled his poetry with life and death. Both shaped the indissoluble association of his biography and literary output until death overcame life and love, turning the poet into a "foam body."