Miguel Hernández: Life, Themes, and Poetic Evolution

Miguel Hernández's Poetry

Miguel Hernández belongs to the generation of poets following Garcilaso. His production is linked to the Generation of '27, as he cultivated some of the group's important trends: Gongorine baroque, surrealism, and neopopularism.

Poetic Evolution

First Stage (Early Works)

• The production begins with Perito en lunas (1933). This collection, inspired by Gongorine and avant-garde styles, is characterized by its complexity and baroque nature.
• He later wrote texts on mystical religious themes, published in the journal El Gallo en la Crisis.
• In 1936, El rayo que no cesa (The Unceasing Lightning) appeared, a book of love poetry containing reworkings of earlier poems.

Second Stage (Committed Poetry)

This stage is marked by committed poetry, including Viento del pueblo (Wind of the People) and El hombre acecha (The Man Stalking), which feature social, combative, political, and painful poetry texts.

Last Stage (Prison Poems)

This stage corresponds to the poems written in jail, collected in Cancionero y romancero de ausencias (Songs and Ballads of Absence).

Central Themes

The central themes in the work of Miguel Hernández are linked to his conception of life and his social commitment.

Suffering and Sorrow (La Pena)

Existential suffering and the conviction of his tragic fate dominate the author's poetic output. Sorrow is linked to other topics such as love, death, and absence.

Love

Love, linked to passion and eroticism, is often associated with pain, but also with the fulfillment of conjugal union and motherhood.

Hatred and Conflict

These themes reappear in a tragic period marked by wars and the cruelty of the human being. The poet opposes this fierceness with love, solidarity, and hope.

Style and Metrics

After the artifice of his early poems, his poetic language becomes refined, using a simpler vocabulary and nominal and verbal expressions of exalted drama.

Symbolism in El rayo que no cesa

The use of symbols stands out in this work:

• The Bull: Symbol of his tragic destiny, manhood, and loving encounter.
• Knives and Daggers: Related to death.

His poetry frequently employs metaphors, images, and resources of repetition.

El rayo que no cesa (The Unceasing Lightning)

The focus of this book is the suffering of love. The poetic voice is displayed after being threatened by a tragic fate, and from a contradictory vision of love, equating it with pain and death. The symbol of the bull is prominent in some of these poems.

This collection includes the famous poem "Elegía a Ramón Sijé", dedicated to the author's friend. The elements of the rural nature they shared serve to express grief for the loss and the integration of humans with the earth.

Cancionero y romancero de ausencias (Songs and Ballads of Absence)

This book recreates the central elements of Hernández's poetry: the wounds of life, love, death, and the tragic conception of existence. The poetic voice has lost everything, suffering from absence and lack of freedom.

It depicts a world full of anger, stalking, and rancor, which only love can overcome, triumphing over hatred. In this regard, the importance of the subject of his son is stressed, representing the fruit and culmination of his love for his wife.