Miguel Hernández's Poetic Legacy: Themes of Life, Love, Death

Miguel Hernández's poetry consistently explores three major themes: life, love, and death. His Cancionero y romancero de ausencias (Songbook and Ballads of Absences) encapsulates these profound subjects.

Nature in Hernández's Poetry

Hernández was a nature poet from childhood. His early work depicted nature as a living environment, covering landscapes and everyday elements of his modest existence. His poems, often described as modernist in their features, delve into the mystery of creation, attempting to reach the soul of things. He considered himself part of nature, exalting and dignifying even the most insignificant elements, making any element the subject of his verse.

"Perito en lunas": A Góngora-Inspired Work

At this stage, his most significant work is Perito en lunas (Expert in Moons), which adopts the style of Góngora. This work is a series of intricate puzzles where the author, the "moon expert," describes hidden objects through their forms. The moon, in its four phases, serves to identify different objects and simultaneously references the life cycle.

Love in Hernández's Verse

Love, particularly the passionate flame of women, is a pervasive theme throughout Hernández's poetry. His exploration of love encompasses nature, women, sexual awakening, and religious conflict.

"El rayo que no cesa" and Frustrated Love

El rayo que no cesa (The Unceasing Lightning), composed of love sonnets, was influenced by three women. A prevailing feeling of frustrated love permeates all his poems from this period. The poet experiences his love passion as a constant torture and suffering.

War and Social Commitment

The outbreak of the Civil War transformed his work into poetry of witness and reportage. These events awakened in him a profound sense of collective responsibility and solidarity.

"Viento del pueblo": Poetry of Witness

This period marked the beginning of his committed poetry, focusing on war and its denunciation, exemplified by the theme of Viento del pueblo (Wind of the People). After the war, only prison, suffering, and death remained for him.

Maturity and "Cancionero y romancero de ausencias"

In September 1939, after a brief release from prison and before his final arrest, he gave his wife a manuscript of poems titled Cancionero y romancero de ausencias.

The "Three Stripes": Love, Life, and Death

With this final collection, his poetic voice matured, becoming naked, intimate, and heartbreaking, tragic in tone. Its content addresses the most haunting aspects of his lyrical world:

• Love
• Life
• Death

While his early poetry began with elemental life, as his personal suffering took shape, he tragically encountered the deaths of his friend, the son of his colleagues, and ultimately, his own.