Symbolism and Imagery in Miguel Hernández's Poetry

Images and Symbols in Miguel Hernández's Poetry

In his formative years, Miguel Hernández presented images taken directly from Orihuela: the lemon tree, the well, and the fig tree. The poet's image must always accompany the pastor, reflected in compositions like Cuclillas or Perito en lunas, edited in Murcia within the Sudeste collection. His work shows the influence of Góngora's cultism, where the poet seeks solutions in riddles and titles. The bull appears as a sign of sacrifice and death, while the palm tree is combined with a chorro.

Themes of Love, Desire, and Conflict

In El rayo que no cesa, the fundamental theme is fire and lightning: love and desire. Desire is sexual, and blood is the culinary symbol of sex, while the lemon tree represents the feminine. The frustration of the poet's beloved produces pain, translated into the character of the beloved: we appreciate soft and harsh aspects, such as 'if not thought / nard your tea for my view', where the beloved is represented by soft metaphors or harsh images. All these recall the bull, born in mourning, where a symbolic struggle of the poet is intertwined. The wind of the people is used as a weapon, marking a displacement of the poet's 'I' toward others.

Social Commitment and Personal Loss

The wind of the people becomes the voice of the people. The cowardly and resigned are not identified with the image of the ox; the lion is the symbol of rebellion and nonconformity. The poet suffers in solidarity with those who suffer: the child of the yoke, the flesh of the yoke. After his marriage to Josefina, the accent is placed on maternity, with the belly as a symbol. In El hombre acecha, we find hunger as a beast. The symbols of this book are hunger and blood, signifying pain rather than desire. In Cancionero y romancero de ausencias, death is symbolized by a train that does not stop at hospitals. This poetry book closes with the last song, a clear homage to Quevedo, marking the death of his first child.

Hope and Legacy

Hope is reborn with the arrival of a new child. The Nanas de la cebolla are destined for this new child, in whom the poet's survival is symbolized. In prison, he still longs for his beloved, but death, symbolized by the sea, remains the only certainty for the poet.