The Poetic Journey of Miguel Hernández: Life, Death, and Love

Miguel Hernández: A Poetic Life's Tragic Arc

In the poetry of Miguel Hernández, a perfectly dramatic discourse of his life unfolds, beginning with a basic, almost festive and unconscious existence that gradually, as it is shaped by suffering, slides down the slope of tragedy.

Early Optimism and Passionate Beginnings

His early poems show a conscious disregard for some things, a vital carefree spirit, and even a natural optimism derived from the joy he found in observing nature. This jubilant and vital Miguel Hernández lived immersed in his two great passions: reading and writing.

The Onset of Melancholy and Deepening Themes

After the excitement of nature comes melancholy, which is merely an internalization of the life around him. A death knell of sadness pervades the landscape and fills the poet with sorrow. Miguel Hernández adds experience to his poetry, just as his life is nurtured by poetry; each poem embodies some aspect of life and death. Thus, life and death in Miguel Hernández's work configure the indissoluble association of his biography with his literary production.

Fatalism and the Poet's Worldview

The poet gradually enters a tragic vitalism in which everything is enveloped by a fatal presentiment, by an overwhelming fatalism that represents death. Ultimately, everything is life and death in the poetry of Miguel Hernández; these two elements form the image of the world that the poet possesses. Life and death become a discord that transcends his ego within the poet's vital spirit. Undoubtedly, the entire work of the Orihuela poet is crossed by a lively, robust, baroque-style exaltation of death.

Love, Loss, and Poetic Anguish

In fact, life and death are part of a sensual and passionate network: death will come when the poet is denied love, when he resists the joyous fullness of love. However, that feeling of discouragement will not fully manifest until the poet learns of the deaths of Ramón Sijé and his own son. His verses then become filled with rage, pain, wounds, and bites—a dying voice manifested especially in his Songs and Ballads of Absences.

Later Works: Love, Hope, and Redemption

However, the later poems are perhaps the most tender and melancholy of Miguel Hernández's entire work. They complete the cycle back to love, because there is no salvation, no redemption possible without love. His beloved son constantly appears, an infinite yearning that, while dying, breathes with the hope of immortality. Love gives wings to the poet: "Only those who love fly."

The Enduring Intertwining of Life and Death

Finally, we must insist on this indissoluble association that shapes life and death in Miguel Hernández's poetry. Clearly, when the poet is full of life, he is also seeking death. Therefore, from the splendid mystical paradox "living without living in me" to the outright Hernandian play of identifications and identities, living and dying merge in a single channel of inspiration, reminiscent of Quevedo.