Spanish Poetry Evolution: 1950s to 1980s

Experimental Poetry and Renewal: 1950-1960

Topics: Everything deeply human: man, time, childhood, friendship, love, and everyday life.

Style: Greater variety than in the previous decade and more rigorous in their work with words.

Group or Generation of '50: Claudio Rodríguez, Ángel González, José Ángel Valente, Jaime Gil de Biedma, Gamoneda, José Agustín Goytisolo, Caballero Bonald.

• Claudio Rodríguez: His early career began with Don de la ebriedad. Later books include Conjuros and El vuelo de la celebración.
• Ángel González: Considered the most social of the poets of the Group of '50. His work shows a journey through different stages. His most important works are Tratado de urbanismo and Canciones para una breve biografía.
• Jaime Gil de Biedma: Has a very short bibliography, gathered under the title Personas del verbo. The closest themes will be dominant in his later work (eroticism, love, friendship, children). He is a vital influence on the future poetry of experience.
• José Ángel Valente: The existential and social tone of his early poems (Poemas a Lázaro) becomes denser and more complex until the end of his work, reaching great secrecy.

Poetry of the 1970s: Los Novísimos

In the 1970s, the so-called Novísimos emerged, a group of poets whose names appear in major anthologies such as Nueve novísimos poetas españoles. These include Pere Gimferrer, Leopoldo María Panero, Vázquez Montalbán, Ana María Moix, Félix de Azúa, Vicente Molina Foix, Antonio Colinas, and Luis Alberto de Cuenca.

Their poetry is characterized by the rejection of social realism, an elite style, cultural content, and the integration of diverse influences such as film, advertising, television, literature, Symbolism, and Surrealism.

• Pere Gimferrer: A key writer of his generation. His most important works are Arde el mar and Poesía, which gathered his poetry in Castilian. Since then, the author has mostly written in Catalan but recently returned to writing in Castilian in his book Tornado.
• Antonio Colinas: His most important works feature meditations on death and the transience of life. Highlights include Astrolabio and Jardín de Orfeo.

Poetry from the 1980s

Since the late 1970s, a certain weariness with the lyrics of the Novísimos and a gradual renewal of poetic creation can be observed. There are several poetic trends from the 1980s, making classification difficult. Notable writers include Luis García Montero and Luis Antonio de Villena.