Spanish Poetry: Vicente Aleixandre and Rafael Alberti

Vicente Aleixandre: Surrealism and Universal Connection

Vicente Aleixandre is one of the most prominent Spanish poets whose surrealism manifested a desire for integration and communication with the universal. This binding is achieved through two main themes: love and death.

Stages of Aleixandre's Work

His work is usually divided into three distinct stages:

• Vanguard Stage: Aleixandre assumes surrealist postulates freely. In this first stage of production, he focuses on imperfection, anguish, and human frailty. Aleixandre appears pantheistic, wanting to merge with nature as a way to participate in its harmony. In his books, he identifies the fullness of love with death in a mystical way.
• Abandonment of Surrealism: There is a grand vision of human solidarity, and the poet becomes the voice of the people.
• Metaphysical Period: The poet longs for youth and is concerned with the mystery of existence, the ultimate meaning of life, and the world.

Literary Style of Vicente Aleixandre

Aleixandre's difficult poetry excels through risky metaphors. Symbols are used very often within a verse rich in repetitive structures such as parallelism and anaphora. The use of the conjunction "or" with an explanatory value (e.g., The Destruction or Love) is particularly striking.

Rafael Alberti: Themes and Stylistic Variety

In Rafael Alberti's work, there is a wide variety of themes, tones (ranging from humorous to distressed), and styles (including pure poetry and surrealism). Recurring themes in his poetry include the continuous return to his roots, the search for "lost trees," and an irrepressible longing for his land and the sea.

Key Stages of Alberti's Career

Neopopulism Stage

In Sailor on Earth (Marinero en tierra), Alberti develops the motive of nostalgia centered on his native land and the sea as a symbol of purity associated with childhood and the original paradise.

Baroque and Avant-Garde Stage

Two key works stand out in this period:

• Cal y Canto: A Góngora-inspired and futuristic collection demonstrating a great mastery of technique while exploring the world of modern myths.
• I Was a Fool and What I Saw Made Me Two Fools: A futuristic book devoted to silent film figures.

Surreal Stage

About the Angels (Sobre los ángeles) meets a religious and life crisis of the poet and is considered his masterpiece. It is written in free verse, which was short at first. The "Angels" that give the book its title symbolize cruelty, sadness, despair, and death.

Civic Stage

These are works of social and political themes with a revolutionary tone. Civic Elegy (1930) is a poetry of urgency, sometimes of high quality and sometimes taking a pamphleteer approach.

Exile Stage

This period is characterized by a mixture of different styles and themes; works about exile and the longing for the lost homeland predominate.

Alberti's Poetic Style

Alberti's poetry lives within the folk trend, approaching popular poetry with complex and disruptive avant-garde language. As seen in Marinero en tierra, his poetry is constantly changing.