Rafael Alberti and Vicente Aleixandre: Spanish Poets

Rafael Alberti: A Life in Poetry

Rafael Alberti (born in Puerto de Santa María, Spain, 1902) was a prominent Spanish poet. He studied at the Jesuit school in his hometown but was expelled for insubordination. In 1917, he moved with his family to Madrid, where he initially pursued painting while also developing an interest in Spanish Romantic and Modernist poets. However, his literary vocation soon took precedence. In 1925, he published Marinero en tierra, a collection of poems that earned him the National Prize for Literature, shared with Gerardo Diego. He followed this with other works inspired by Andalusian folklore and the poetry of *cancioneros* (songbooks).

The commemoration of the 300th anniversary of Góngora's death, a significant event for the generation of poets to which Alberti belonged (later known as the Generation of '27), marked a turning point in his poetry. He began experimenting with avant-garde techniques, producing works aligned with the then-current *neogongorismo*. This was followed by a foray into Surrealist poetry, more in technique than in life attitude, as exemplified by *Sobre los ángeles* (1929).

Increasingly involved in social and political issues (he joined the Communist Party in 1931), Alberti's poetry shifted towards social themes. He also ventured into theater for the first time, writing avant-garde dramas and politically committed, even revolutionary, farces. Years of travel, recitations, and active anti-fascist struggle followed, during which he published articles and poems in newspapers. After the end of the Spanish Civil War, he moved with his wife, the writer M. Teresa León, first to France, then to Chile, and finally settled in Buenos Aires. This period of exile proved to be a fertile literary time, albeit marked by a more intimate and melancholic tone.

In 1963, he was forced to relocate to Rome, where he remained until the end of his exile in 1977. Upon returning to Spain, he briefly served as a Communist deputy in Cádiz. In 1983, he was awarded the Cervantes Prize.

Vicente Aleixandre: Nobel Laureate

Introduction

Vicente Aleixandre y Merlo (1898-1984) was a Spanish poet who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1977. He had previously won the National Book Award in 1934 and became a member of the Royal Spanish Academy in 1949.

Biographical Sketch

Born in Seville, Aleixandre spent his childhood in Málaga and moved to Madrid at the age of thirteen. He graduated in Law and Commerce from the University of Madrid and served as a Professor of Commercial Law from 1920 to 1922. In 1925, he contracted tuberculosis, which led him to a sanatorium in the Sierra de Guadarrama, near Madrid, isolating him from cultural and social life for several years. This serious illness prompted him to start writing poetry. From then on, he dedicated himself entirely to literature.

Aleixandre was one of the writers and intellectuals known as the Generation of '27, who, in 1927, paid tribute to Luis de Góngora, defying the academic authorities' refusal to celebrate the tercentenary of the great poet's death. He was a writer who profoundly influenced subsequent generations of poets, despite some, particularly those of the social generation of the 1950s, not fully acknowledging it. His frail health led him to a life away from worldly distractions at his home on Madrid's Velintonia Street. In the last years of his life, his home became a social gathering place for literary intellectuals and poets.

The Nobel Prize in 1977 was awarded to him "for his great creative work, rooted in the tradition of Spanish lyric and enlightening modern poetic movements of the human condition in the cosmos, and the needs of the hour".

A Total Work

Considered the great Spanish author of pure poetry, Aleixandre's first published book was *Ámbito* in 1928. In it, he demonstrates an interest in nature and provides knowledge that enables passion. It shows a clear influence of Juan Ramón Jiménez and opens to contemplation from within.