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Rafael Alberti Merello (16 December 1902 – 28 October 1999) was a
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
poet, a member of the
Generation of '27 The Generation of '27 ( es, Generación del 27) was an influential group of poets that arose in Spanish literary circles between 1923 and 1927, essentially out of a shared desire to experience and work with avant-garde forms of art and poetry. ...
. He is considered one of the greatest literary figures of the so-called ''Silver Age'' of
Spanish Literature Spanish literature generally refers to literature ( Spanish poetry, prose, and drama) written in the Spanish language within the territory that presently constitutes the Kingdom of Spain. Its development coincides and frequently intersects wi ...
, and he won numerous prizes and awards. He died aged 96. After the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...
, he went into exile because of his Marxist beliefs. On his return to Spain after the death of
Franco Franco may refer to: Name * Franco (name) * Francisco Franco (1892–1975), Spanish general and dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975 * Franco Luambo (1938–1989), Congolese musician, the "Grand Maître" Prefix * Franco, a prefix used when ref ...
, he was named Hijo Predilecto de Andalucía in 1983 and Doctor Honoris Causa by the
Universidad de Cádiz Universidad (Spanish for "university") may refer to: Places * Universidad, San Juan, Puerto Rico * Universidad (Madrid) Football clubs * Universidad SC, a Guatemalan football club that represents the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala ...
in 1985. He published his memoirs under the title of ''La Arboleda perdida'' (‘The Lost Grove’) in 1959 and this remains the best source of information on his early life.


Life


Early life

The Puerto de Santa María at the mouth of the Guadalete River on the Bay of Cádiz was, as now, one of the major distribution outlets for the sherry trade from
Jerez de la Frontera Jerez de la Frontera (), or simply Jerez (), is a Spanish city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality in the province of Cádiz in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, in southwestern Spain, located midway bet ...
. Alberti was born there in 1902, to a family of vintners who had once been the most powerful in town, suppliers of
sherry Sherry ( es, jerez ) is a fortified wine made from white grapes that are grown near the city of Jerez de la Frontera in Andalusia, Spain. Sherry is produced in a variety of styles made primarily from the Palomino grape, ranging from light versi ...
to the crowned heads of Europe.Alberti p 20 Both of his grandfathers were Italian; one of his grandmothers was from
Huelva Huelva (, ) is a city in southwestern Spain, the capital of the province of Huelva in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is between two short rias though has an outlying spur including nature reserve on the Gulf of Cádiz coast. The ria ...
, the other from Ireland.Alberti p 19 However, at some point, while they were handing down the business to the next generation, bad management resulted in the ''bodegas'' being sold to the Osbornes.Alberti p 58-9 As a result, Alberti's father was no more than a commercial traveller for the company, always away on business, as the general agent for Spain for brands of sherry and brandy that had, before, only been exported to the UK.Alberti p 21 This sense of belonging to a “bourgeois family now in decline” was to become an enduring theme in his mature poetry. At the age of 10, he entered the Jesuit ''Colegio San Luis Gonzaga''Alberti p 39 as a charity day-boy. During his first year, Alberti was a model student but his growing awareness of how differently the boarders were treated from the day-boys, together with the other ranking systems operated by the Jesuits, inspired in him a desire to rebel. In his memoirs, he attributes it to growing class conflict.Alberti p 42 He began to play truant and defy the school authorities until he was finally expelled in 1917. However, his family was then at the point of moving to Madrid which meant that the disgrace did not register on Alberti or his family as strongly as it might have done. The family moved to Calle de Atocha in Madrid in May 1917. By the time of the move, Alberti had already shown a precocious interest in painting. In Madrid, he again neglected his formal studies, preferring to go to the Casón del Buen Retiro and the
Prado The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the ...
, where he spent many hours copying paintings and sculptures.Alberti p 105-6 It was as a painter that he made his first entries into the artistic world of the capital. For example, in October 1920, he was invited to exhibit in the Autumn Salon in Madrid.Alberti p.133 However, according to his memoirs, the deaths in 1920 in quick succession of his father, the matador Joselito, and Benito Pérez Galdós inspired him to write poetry.Alberti p 138


Life in Madrid

In 1921, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and he spent many months recuperating in a sanatorium in the
Sierra de Guadarrama The Sierra de Guadarrama (Guadarrama Mountains) is a mountain range forming the main eastern section of the Sistema Central, the system of mountain ranges along the centre of the Iberian Peninsula. It is located between the systems Sierra de G ...
where he read avidly among the works of Antonio Machado and Juan Ramón Jiménez,Alberti p 144 as well as various Ultraist and ''Vanguardista'' writers. At this time, he also met
Dámaso Alonso Dámaso Alonso y Fernández de las Redondas (22 October 1898 – 25 January 1990) was a Spanish poet, philologist and literary critic. Though a member of the Generation of '27, his best-known work dates from the 1940s onwards. Early life and ed ...
,Alberti p 150 at that time a poet rather than the formidable critic he would become, and it was he who introduced Alberti to the works of
Gil Vicente Gil Vicente (; c. 1465c. 1536), called the Trobadour, was a Portuguese playwright and poet who acted in and directed his own plays. Considered the chief dramatist of Portugal he is sometimes called the "Portuguese Plautus," often ref ...
and other Golden Age writers. He began to write poetry in earnest and submitted a few, successfully, to various avant-garde magazines. The book that resulted from this activity, ''Marinero en tierra'' (‘Sailor on Dry Land’), submitted at the last minute, won the Premio Nacional de Literatura for poetry in 1924.Alberti p 191 He enjoyed great success over the next few years in the sense of artistic prestige: he was still financially dependent on his family. The new literary magazines were eager to publish his works. He was also starting to make friends with the people who would eventually get grouped together as the
Generation of '27 The Generation of '27 ( es, Generación del 27) was an influential group of poets that arose in Spanish literary circles between 1923 and 1927, essentially out of a shared desire to experience and work with avant-garde forms of art and poetry. ...
. He already knew Dámaso Alonso and, on one of his returns to Madrid, he met
Vicente Aleixandre Vicente Pío Marcelino Cirilo Aleixandre y Merlo (; 26 April 1898 – 14 December 1984) was a Spanish poet who was born in Seville. Aleixandre received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1977 "for a creative poetic writing which illuminates ma ...
,Alberti p 162 a resident of the ''Salamanca'' district. It was probably in October 1924 – Alberti's memoirs are vague on this and many other details – that he met
Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca ( ), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblemat ...
in the Residencia de Estudiantes.Gibson p 139 He was known to have a rocky relationship with him, since Lorca was gay and Alberti didn’t approve of his sexuality. They weren’t best of friends, but when Lorca finally died, in 1936, he dedicated him a poem. During further visits to the ''Residencia'' - it seems that he never actually became a member himself - he met
Pedro Salinas Pedro Salinas y Serrano (27 November 1891 – 4 December 1951) was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27, as well as a university teacher, scholar and literary critic. In 1937, he delivered the Turnbull lectures at Johns Hopkins ...
,
Jorge Guillén Jorge Guillén Álvarez (; 18 January 18936 February 1984) was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27, a university teacher, a scholar and a literary critic. In 1957-1958, he delivered the Charles Eliot Norton lectures at Harvard Un ...
, and
Gerardo Diego Gerardo Diego Cendoya (October 3, 1896 – July 8, 1987) was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27. Diego taught language and literature at institutes of learning in Soria, Gijón, Santander and Madrid. He also acted as litera ...
along with many other cultural icons such as
Luis Buñuel Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish-Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians, and directors to be one of the greatest and ...
, and
Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarre images in ...
. The kind of folkloric/''cancionero'' poetry he had used in ''Marinero'' was also employed in two further collections – ''La amante'' (‘The Mistress’) and ''El alba del alhelí'' (‘Dawn of the Wallflower’) – but with the approach of the Góngora Tercentenary he began to write in a style that was not only more formally demanding but which also enabled him to be more satirical and dramatic. The result was ''Cal y canto'' (‘Quicklime and Plainsong’). Alberti himself was present at the meeting at a Madrid cafe in April 1926, when the plans for the tercentenary were first sketched out - along with Pedro Salinas, Melchor Fernández Almagro and Gerardo Diego. Before the Tercentennial celebrations were over, Alberti was starting to write the first poems of ''Sobre los ángeles'' (‘Concerning the Angels’), a book that showed a complete change of direction in the poetry of not only Alberti, but also the whole Group, and is generally considered his masterpiece. His next collections, ''Sermones y moradas'' (‘Sermons and mansions‘) and ''Yo era un tonto y lo que he visto me ha hecho dos tontos'' (‘ I was a fool and what I have seen has made me two fools’), together with a play ''El hombre deshabitado'' (‘The Empty Man’), all showed signs of a psychological breakdown which, to the surprise of everyone who knew him, had overwhelmed Alberti and from which he was only saved by his elopement with the writer and political activist
María Teresa León María Teresa León Goyri (31 October 1903 – 13 December 1988) was a Spanish writer, activist and cultural ambassador. Born in Logroño, she was the niece of the Spanish feminist and writer María Goyri (the wife of Ramón Menéndez Pidal). S ...
in either 1929 or 1930 – again his memoirs are not clear on the date.Alberti p 287


Marriage, conversion to Marxism, civil war and exile

The inference from his memoirs is that she played a key role, along with his continuing bitter memories of the ''Colegio'', in the process that converted the easy-going, carousing bohemian of the early books into the committed Communist of the 1930s. The establishment of the
Second Spanish Republic The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of King Alfonso XIII, and was dissolved on 1 ...
in 1931 was another factor that pushed Alberti towards Marxism and he joined the
Communist Party of Spain The Communist Party of Spain ( es, Partido Comunista de España; PCE) is a Marxist-Leninist party that, since 1986, has been part of the United Left coalition, which is part of Unidas Podemos. It currently has two of its politicians serving a ...
. For Alberti, it became a religion in all but name and there is evidence that suggests that some of his friends tired of his unceasing attempts to "convert" them.Gibson p. 440 As a Party emissary, he was finally freed from financial dependence on his family and he made several trips to northern Europe. But when Gil Robles came to power in 1933, the violent attacks that Alberti launched against him in the magazine '' Octubre'' (‘October’), which he had founded with María Teresa, led to a period of exile. At the start of the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...
he was imprisoned in Ibiza and released in August 1936 when the island returned to Republican control. By November 1936 he was in Madrid having commandeered an aristocrat's palace (Palacio de Zabálburu) near Retiro Park as headquarters of his Alianza de Intelectuales Anti-fascistas (Alliance of Anti-Fascist Intellectuals), which became a second home to Gerda Taro. During the Spanish Civil War, Alberti became the poetic voice of the left and he made frequent broadcasts from the capital during the Siege of Madrid by the
Francoist Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spai ...
armies, composing poems in praise of the defenders of the city. He published them in a magazine entitled '' El Mono Azul'' which he cofounded with his wife. There was scarcely an edition of the
XV International Brigade The Abraham Lincoln Brigade ( es, Brigada Abraham Lincoln), officially the XV International Brigade (''XV Brigada Internacional''), was a mixed brigade that fought for the Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War as a part of the Internation ...
newspaper, ''Volunteer for Liberty'' which did not contain one of his poems. In early 1939 he and his wife were in
Elda Elda is a city and municipality located in the province of Alicante, Spain. , it has a total population of 55,618 inhabitants, ranking as the 7th most populous city in the province. Elda joins together with the town of Petrer to form a conurba ...
running a large country house as a hotel, at which many Republicans gathered considering exile. These included La Pasionara,
Enrique Líster Enrique Líster Forján (21 April 1907 – 8 December 1994) was a Spanish communist politician and military officer. Early life Líster was born in 1907 at Ameneiro, A Coruña. A stonemason, he spent his adolescence in Cuba, before returni ...
and
Juan Modesto Juan Guilloto León, usually referred to as Modesto or Juan Modesto (24 September 1906 – 16 April 1969), was a Second Spanish Republic, Republican army officer during the Spanish Civil War. Biography Early life Born at El Puerto de Santa ...
. After the defeat of the
Spanish Republican Armed Forces The Spanish Republican Armed Forces ( es, Fuerzas Armadas de la República Española) were initially formed by the following two branches of the military of the Second Spanish Republic: *Spanish Republican Army (''Ejército de la República Espa ...
and the disbandment of the Republic by the
rebel faction The Nationalist faction ( es, Bando nacional) or Rebel faction ( es, Bando sublevado) was a major faction in the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939. It was composed of a variety of right-leaning political groups that supported the Spanish Coup ...
, Alberti and María fled to Paris via Oran and moved into an apartment together with Pablo Neruda on the Quai de l'Horloge.Neruda p.126 They lived in Paris until the end of 1940 working as translators for French radio and as announcers for the broadcasts of ''Paris-Mondial'' in Latin-America. After the
German occupation of France The Military Administration in France (german: Militärverwaltung in Frankreich; french: Occupation de la France par l'Allemagne) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied zo ...
they sailed from Marseilles to
Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
on the SS Mendoza. They lived in Argentina until 1963. Amongst other activities – he worked for the Losada publishing house and continued writing and painting - Alberti worked in the Argentinian film industry, notably as the adaptor of a play by
Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pedro Calderón de la Barca y Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño (, ; ; 17 January 160025 May 1681) was a Spanish dramatist, poet, writer and knight of the Order of Santiago. He is known as one of the most distinguished Baroque ...
, ''La dama duende'' (‘The Ghost Lady’) in 1945. They then moved to Rome. On 27 April 1977 they returned to Spain. Shortly after his return Alberti was elected deputy for
Cádiz Cádiz (, , ) is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the Province of Cádiz, one of eight that make up the autonomous community of Andalusia. Cádiz, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe, ...
in the constituent Congress of the Spanish parliament on the Communist Party Ticket. His wife died on 13 December 1988 from Alzheimer's disease. He died at the age of 96 from a lung ailment. His ashes were scattered over the Bay of Cádiz, the part of the world that mattered most to him.


Other awards that he earned

He was also awarded Lenin Peace Prize for the year 1964 - after lobbying from Pablo NerudaNeruda p. 204 - and Laureate Of The International Botev Prize in 1981. In 1983, he was awarded the Premio Cervantes, the Spanish literary world's highest honour. In 1998, he received the America Award for his lifetime contribution to international writing.


Poetry: the early phase

Although ''Marinero en tierra'' is generally referred to as Alberti's first book, it was in fact his second; an earlier book, ''Giróscopo'' (‘Gyroscope’),Alberti p 158 having been lost, although it seems probable that some of its contents were included in a volume of ''Poesías anteriores a Marinero en tierra'' (‘Poems before ''Marinero en tierra) that he compiled during his time in Rome. ''Marinero'' shows a compendium of different influences: the style of Gil Vicente and the mediaeval ''cancioneros'', to which Alonso had introduced him; a highly organised, formal, baroque style derived from Rubén Darío’s
Modernismo ''Modernismo'' is a literary movement that took place primarily during the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth-century in the Spanish-speaking world, best exemplified by Rubén Darío who is also known as the father of ''Modernismo''. The ter ...
- and ultimately from the poetry of Garcilaso de la Vega, Pedro Espinosa, and possibly Góngora;Alberti p 163 along with traces of Ultraism. Linking these various influences together are the poet’s facility – writing poetry seems to come to him very easily – and an air of naivety and innocence that are in fact carefully contrived.Morris "Generation" When the book was submitted for the Premio Nacional, the book was called ''Mar y tierra'' (‘Sea and land’) and the title ''Marinero en tierra'' was reserved for one single series of poems inside the whole collection. This is the most close-knit series of poems in the entire collection and deserves consideration as a single long poem. It also introduces two enduring themes in his work – his love of his native sea and nostalgia for his childhood. The poems in this sequence are nearly all written in lines of irregular length and irregular assonances and derive most obviously from the ''cancionero'' tradition. ''La amante'' (1925) and ''El alba del alhelí'' (1926) followed in quick succession. These early works were influenced by traditional songs and folklore. Alberti had settled on a style and was writing fluently within it. He was working on the poems which would form ''El alba'' when he was invited by his brother, who had succeeded their father as a wine-salesman, to take a trip with him to the Cantabrian coast. Alberti had never before visited northern Spain and the car-trip through the villages and mountains made a strong impression on him. In ''La amante'', his brother is replaced by the figure of an imaginary girl-friend and he assumes the persona of a troubadour, writing short and generally light-hearted verses about the sights they saw. ''El alba'', on the other hand, was written mainly during holidays he spent with two of his married sisters in Málaga and Rute, a claustrophobic Andalusian mountain village. He had by now met García Lorca and seems to be trying to emulate him. However, what in Lorca is tragic, violent and death-laden tends to seem false and melodramatic in Alberti.


Maturity

His next collection, ''Cal y canto'' (1926-8), is a big departure. He rejects some of the folkloric influences of the previous two works and picks up again the baroque forms, such as the sonnets and tercets, and also the Ultraist thematic material of ''Marinero''. He had been placed in charge of collecting the poems dedicated to Góngora as part of the Tercentenary celebrationsAlberti p 234 and there are many signs of Góngora's influence on this work. Alberti's technical versatility comes to the fore as he writes sonnets, ballads, tercets and even a pastiche of the intricate style of the Soledades. More significantly, there is a sense of unease hanging over the whole collection.Morris "Generation" Traditional values – myths, religion, convention – are found wanting, but more modern values such as speed, freedom and iconoclasm are also found to be hollow. The nymphs, shepherdesses and mythological figures of renaissance and Baroque poetry are brought into contact with department stores and other aspects of modern life only to appear banal. There is a sense in this collection that Alberti is writing in this collection as himself, not as the sailor, the troubadour or the tourist of his earlier books. He even wrote a poem about a heroic performance by the goalkeeper of
FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Found ...
- "Oda a Platko" - in a match against Real Sociedad in May 1928. ''The violence displayed by the Basques was unbelievable'', he wrote in his memoirs. ''At one desperate moment Platko was attacked so furiously by the players of the Real that he was covered with blood and lost consciousness a few feet from his position, but with his arms still wrapped around the ball.''Alberti p 262 The most significant poem in the collection is probably the final one, "Carta abierta" (‘Open Letter’). He makes it clear that he is writing as Rafael Alberti, child of the Bay of Cádiz and the twentieth century. He contrasts the confinement of the classroom with the freedom of the seashore, the excitement and novelty of the cinema with the boredom of lessons, the conventions of traditional literature and ideas with the revolution of radio, the aeroplane, the telephone. In the confusion caused by the clash of old and new values, the poet has a premonition of the feelings of emptiness and desolation that were soon to assail him but he decides to align with the new.


''Sobre los ángeles'' and the works of breakdown

Picking up on the sense of unease that hangs over ''Cal y canto'', Alberti now begins to mine a vein of deep and anguished introspection. He has lost his youthful high spirits and finds himself ''deshabitado'' (‘empty’). An unhappy love affair seems to have been the immediate catalyst but the pit of despair into which Alberti plunged was peopled also by deeper-rooted shadows of his life, notably recollections of his rebellious childhood and the hell-fire sermons of the Jesuits at the ''Colegio'', a friend's suicide, and a full awareness of his own position at the age of 25, misunderstood by his family, penniless, still living at home (it was only after he met María Teresa that he finally moved out) and with no other way of earning a living other than through his poetry. In this black mood, :''What was I to do? How was I to speak or shout or give form to that web of emotions in which I was caught? How could I stand up straight once again and extricate myself from those catastrophic depths into which I had sunk, submerging and burying myself more and more in my own ruins, covering myself in my own rubble, feeling my insides to be torn and splintered? And then there was a kind of angelic revelation – but not from the corporeal, Christian angels found in all those beautiful paintings and religious icons, but angels representing irresistible forces of the spirit who could be moulded to conform to my darkest and most secret mental states. I released them in waves on the world, a blind reincarnation of all the cruelty, desolation, terror and even at times the goodness that existed inside of me but was also encircling me from without. : :I had lost a paradise, the Eden of those early years….''Alberti p 259 : The first section of ''Sobre los ángeles'' (1927-8) consists almost entirely of poems on the loss of love and the poet's consequent feeling of being emptied. The metres are short and contain many irregular lines while still retaining an overall regularity of assonance and rhythm. The central section explores a sense of betrayal by religion. His childhood beliefs were dispelled very early by his fanatical aunts and the Jesuits of the ''Colegio'' but he still needs to find something to believe in to dispel his feelings of emptiness and rootlessness. The third and final section sees a radical change of style. The short lines of the previous sections give way to much longer lines that grow into the tangled webs of surreal imagery that he was to use in his next few works – ''Sermones y moradas'', ''Con los zapatos puestos….'', and ''Yo era un tonto……''. The key to understanding this collection is probably the poem "Muerte y juicio" (‘Death and Judgment’). The child has lost his innocence and belief in a way that was almost predestined before his birth. He recalls one specific incident from his schooldays, when the day-boys played truant and went to the beach to bathe naked and masturbate. They were spotted by a Jesuit teacher and subjected to agonising and humiliating sermons convincing them that they would lose their souls by doing such things.Alberti p 54 ''Sermones y moradas'' (1929–31) was neither clearly conceived as a unified work nor ever completed. It consists of poems in free verse, full of complex surrealist imagery that is almost impenetrable. They convey an atmosphere of helplessness and total desolation. ''Yo era un tonto y lo que he visto me ha hecho dos tontos'' (1929) is Alberti's homage to the American silent comedians whose films he admired so greatly – Buster Keaton,
Harold Lloyd Harold Clayton Lloyd, Sr. (April 20, 1893 – March 8, 1971) was an American actor, comedian, and stunt performer who appeared in many silent comedy films.Obituary '' Variety'', March 10, 1971, page 55. One of the most influential film c ...
,
Harry Langdon Harry Philmore Langdon (June 15, 1884 – December 22, 1944) was an American comedian who appeared in vaudeville, silent films (where he had his greatest fame), and talkies.Obituary ''Variety'', December 27, 1944, page 39. Life and career Bor ...
etc. MorrisMorris "Darkness" has been able to track down some of the specific scenes that inspired these poems but the poems themselves are still in the dense style that Alberti had adopted. ''Con los zapatos puestos tengo que morir'' ('With My Shoes On I Must Die') (1930) – a quote from Calderón – is his final work in this style. Written in the aftermath of the exhilaration of being involved in the anti-
Primo de Rivera Primo de Rivera is a Spanish family prominent in politics of the 19th and 20th centuries: *Fernando Primo de Rivera (1831–1921), Spanish politician and soldier *Miguel Primo de Rivera (1870–1930), nephew of Fernando, military officer and dictat ...
riots, whilst still impenetrably dense at times, it shows the beginning of the socially aware poetry that would be the next direction he would take.


Poetry of the 30s

In July 1936, there was a gathering to hear García Lorca read ''
La casa de Bernarda Alba ''The House of Bernarda Alba'' ( es, La casa de Bernarda Alba) is a play by the Spanish dramatist Federico García Lorca. Commentators have often grouped it with '' Blood Wedding'' and ''Yerma'' as a "rural trilogy". Garcia Lorca did not inc ...
''. Subsequently, Dámaso Alonso recalled that there was a lively discussion about a certain writer - probably Rafael Alberti - who had become deeply involved in politics. "He'll never write anything worthwhile now," was Lorca's comment.Gibson p 442-3 This is probably an unduly sweeping comment to make. Alberti's political commitment manifested itself in two distinct ways: an unoriginal party-line verse whose only saving grace is the technical skill and fluency that he could bring to bear even on such routine exercises, and a far more personal poetry in which he draws from his memories and experience to attack the forces of reaction in a more direct, less opaque way than in his earlier collections. ''De un momento a otro'' (‘From One Moment to the Next’) (1932-8) contains the poem "Colegio (S.J.)" which yet again revisits his memories of his schooldays. Here, however, the Jesuits’ treatment of the day-boys is analysed in a way that shows the poet's newly acquired class consciousness – it is depicted as a systematic way of indoctrinating a sense of inferiority. ''13 bandas y 48 estrellas'' (’13 Stripes and 48 Stars’) (1935). During the 1930s, Alberti was able to make many journeys under the sponsorship of the Communist Party. This book is an account of a visit to the Caribbean and the US, which gave him ample scope to write poems denouncing capitalism. ''Capital de la gloria'' (‘Capital of Glory’) (1936-8). This collects the poems that he wrote in commemoration of the siege of Madrid during the Spanish Civil War. It includes heartfelt but dull tributes to various Republican generals and to the International Brigades as well as poems about the peasant-soldiers that can come across at times as patronising. Alberti himself saw little or no action – he was either abroad or in the comparative safety of offices or broadcasting-studios – but there are some forceful poems for reciting to the troops that might have been inspiring. It is also worth noting that this collection shows a return to more tightly disciplined verse forms. ''Entre el clavel y la espada'' (‘Between the Carnation and the Sword’) (1939–40). This collection gathers the poems that Alberti wrote in France and Argentina at the start of his long exile. It marks a change in style, the feel for a need to regain his discipline as a poet. As a result, it resembles ''Marinero en tierra'' in its formal approach – sonnets, ''cancionero''-style poems etc. A key theme that emerges in this collection is a deep and abiding nostalgia for Spain, the land from which he has been exiled.


Later works

''A la pintura'' (‘On Painting’) (1945- ). During his exile, Alberti took up painting again and began a series of poems to draw together his thinking on this subject, to which he continued to add over a period of many years. He wrote a series of sonnets about the raw materials – the retina, the hand, the canvas, the brush etc.; a series of short poems in free verse about colours; and finally a series of poems in homage to various painters such as
Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian (Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, nea ...
, El Greco etc. ''Ora Maritima'' (‘Maritime Shore’) (1953). This is a collection dedicated to Cádiz, in recognition of its antiquity. The poems take as their subject-matter the historical and mythological past of the city – Hercules, the Carthaginians etc. – as well as bringing into play the poet's childhood across the bay. ''Retornos de lo vivo lejano'' (‘Memories of the Living Distance’’) (1948-52) and ''Baladas y canciones de la Paraná'' (‘Ballads and Songs of the Paraná’) (1955). These collections contain poems of memory and nostalgia in a highly lyrical style. Once again he recalls his schooldays but this time in a mood of sadness. He also recalls his mother, his friends – especially Vicente Aleixandre who was too ill to leave Madrid during the Civil War - the death of Lorca and he also supplies a moving tribute to his wife.


Other works

Alberti was not especially interested in writing for the theatre but he managed to make a big impact with at least two plays. The first was one of the outputs of his breakdown at the end of the 1920s, ''El hombre deshabitado'' ('The Empty Man', 1930). This is like a modern auto sacramental with five characters: Man with his Five Senses in allegorical reincarnation, The Maker, The Wife of Man, and Temptation, the last-named a woman who plots the downfall of both protagonists in complicity with the Senses. On the opening night, 26 February 1931, it met with a stormy reception from a sharply polarised audience.Alberti p 289 Shortly afterwards, he began to write a ballad on the life of Fermín Galán, an army captain who had tried to launch a coup to establish a Spanish Republic in December 1930 and who was executed by firing-squad. Alberti converted the ballad into a play which was performed during June 1931, again to sharply mixed reactions.Alberti p 299 His other plays did not achieve such fame or notoriety. They include: ''De un momento a otro'' ('From One Moment to Another', 1938–39), ''El trébol florido'' ('Clover', 1940), ''El adefesio'' ('The Disaster', 1944) and ''Noche de guerra en el Museo del Prado'' ('A Night of War in the Prado Museum', 1956), as well as adaptions and other short pieces. Alberti also wrote several volumes of memoirs under the title ''La arboleda perdida''. Portions have been published in English as ''The Lost Grove''.


Poetry collections

* ''Marinero en tierra'', M., Biblioteca Nueva, 1925 (Premio Nacional de Literatura). * ''La amante'', Málaga, Litoral, 1926. * ''El alba de alhelí'', Santander, 1927 (Printed privately by José María de Cossío). * ''Domecq (1730–1928). Poema del Ilmo. Sr. Vizconde de Almocadén'', Jerez de la Frontera, Jerez Industrial, 1928. * ''Cal y canto'', M., Revista de Occidente, 1929. * ''Yo era un tonto y lo que he visto me ha hecho dos tontos'', originally published in various numbers of La Gaceta Literaria, 1929. * ''Sobre los ángeles'', M., CIAP, 1929. * ''El poeta en la calle (1931–1935)'', Aguilar, Madrid, 1978. * ''Consignas'', M., 1933. * ''Un fantasma recorre Europa'', M., La tentativa poética, 1933. * ''Poesía (1924–1930)'', M., Ediciones del Árbol( Cruz y Raya), 1935. * ''Versos de agitación'', México, Edit. Defensa Roja, 1935. * ''Verte y no verte. A Ignacio Sánchez Mejías'', México, N. Lira, 1935. * ''13 bandas y 48 estrellas. Poemas del mar Caribe'', M., Manuel Altolaguirre, 1936. * ''Nuestra diaria palabra'', M., Héroe, 1936. * ''De un momento a otro (Poesía e historia)'', M., Europa-América, 1937. * ''El burro explosivo'', M., Edic. 5º Regimiento, 1938. * ''Poesías (1924–1937)'', M., Signo, 1938. * ''Poesías (1924–1938)'', Bs. As., Losada, 1940. * ''Entre el clavel y la espada (1939-1940)'', Bs. As., Losada, 1941. Illustrations by Rafael Alberti. * ''Pleamar (1942–1944)'', Bs. As., Losada, 1944. * ''Poesía (1924–1944)'', Bs. As., Losada, 1946. * ''A la pintura'', Bs. As., Imprenta López (Private edition). * ''A la pintura. Poema del color y la línea (1945–1948)'', Bs. As., Losada, 1948. * ''Coplas de Juan Panadero. (Libro I)'', Montevideo, Pueblos Unidos, 1949 (2nd expanded edition). Illustrations by Toño Salazar. * ''Poemas de Punta del Este'' (1945–1956), Ist edition Seix Barral 1979, * ''Buenos Aires en tinta china'', Bs. As., Losada, 1952. Illustrations by Attilio Rossi. * ''Retornos de lo vivo lejano'', Bs. As., 1952. * ''A la pintura (1945–1952)'' 2nd augmented edition, Bs. As., Losada, 1953. * ''Ora marítima seguido de Baladas y canciones del Paraná (1953)'', Bs. As., Losada, 1953. * ''Redoble lento por la muerte de Stalin'', (Buenos Aires, 9 de marzo de 1953). Included in ''Obras completas. Poesía III''. Seix Barral. 2003. * ''Balada y canciones del Paraná'', Bs. As., Losada, 1954. * ''Sonríe China'', Bs. As., Jacobo Muchnik, 1958 (in collaboration with María Teresa León). * ''Poemas escénicos'', Bs. As., Losada, 1962 (2nd expanded bilingual edition Spanish/Italian). * ''Abierto a todas horas'', M., Afrodisio Aguado, 1964. * ''El poeta en la calle (1931–1965)'', París, Librairie du Globe, 1966 (Compilation of all Alberti's social poetry). * ''Il mattatore'', Roma, Eutro edit, 1966. * ''A la pintura. Poema del color y la línea (1945–1967)'' 3rd augmented edition, M., Aguilar, 1968 (Prologue by
Vicente Aleixandre Vicente Pío Marcelino Cirilo Aleixandre y Merlo (; 26 April 1898 – 14 December 1984) was a Spanish poet who was born in Seville. Aleixandre received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1977 "for a creative poetic writing which illuminates ma ...
). * ''Roma, peligro para caminantes'', México, Joaquín Mortiz, 1968 (2nd augmented edition - Málaga- Litoral- 1974). * ''Los 8 nombres de Picasso y no digo más que lo que no digo'', B., Kairós, 1970. * ''Canciones del Alto Valle del Aniene'', Bs. As., Losada, 1972. * ''Disprezzo e meraviglia (Desprecio y maravilla)'', Roma, Riuniti, 1972 (Bilingual Italian/Spanish. Anthology with unpublished poems). * ''Maravillas con variaciones acrósticas en el jardín de Miró'', B., Polígrafa, 1975. *
Casi Malagueñas de la Menina II
', 1976 poem dedicated to
Berrocal Berrocal is a city located in the province of Huelva, Spain. According to the 2005 census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used ...
's work - Opus 117 LA MENINA II * ''Coplas de Juan Panadero (1949–1977)'', M., Mayoría, 1977. * ''Cuaderno de Rute (1925)'', Málaga, Litoral, 1977. * ''Los 5 destacagados'', Sevilla, Calle del Aire, 1978. * ''Fustigada luz'', B., Seix Barral, 1980. * ''Versos sueltos de cada día'', B., Seix Barral, 1982. * ''Golfo de Sombras'', M., Villamonte, 1986. * ''Los hijos del drago y otros poemas'', Granada, Diputación, 1986. * ''Accidente. Poemas del Hospital'', Málaga, Librería Anticuaria El Guadalhorce, 1987. * ''Cuatro canciones'', Málaga, Librería Anticuaria El Guadalhorce, 1987. * ''El aburrimiento'', 1988. * ''Canciones para Altair'', M., Hiperión, 1989.


Legacy

* There is a Rafael Alberti bookstore in the centre of Madrid, in the Argüelles district, since 1975. * There is a Rafael Alberti Museum that operates as a legacy foundation in the poet's hometown of Santa María, Cádiz. * The Spanglish novel
Yo-Yo Boing! ''Yo-Yo Boing!'' (1998) is a postmodern novel in English, Spanish, and Spanglish by Puerto Rican author Giannina Braschi. The cross-genre work is a structural hybrid of poetry, political philosophy, musical, manifesto, treatise, memoir, an ...
(1998) by Puerto Rican poet
Giannina Braschi Giannina Braschi (born February 5, 1953) is a Puerto Rican poet, novelist, dramatist, and scholar. Her notable works include ''Empire of Dreams'' (1988), ''Yo-Yo Boing!'' (1998) ''and United States of Banana'' (2011). Braschi writes cross-genr ...
features a debate about the creators versus the masters of
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
and Latin American poetry. The debate places Rafael Alberti along with
Vicente Aleixandre Vicente Pío Marcelino Cirilo Aleixandre y Merlo (; 26 April 1898 – 14 December 1984) was a Spanish poet who was born in Seville. Aleixandre received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1977 "for a creative poetic writing which illuminates ma ...
,
Vicente Huidobro Vicente García-Huidobro Fernández (; January 10, 1893 – January 2, 1948) was a Chilean poet born to an aristocratic family. He promoted the avant-garde literary movement in Chile and was the creator and greatest exponent of the literary m ...
,
Pedro Salinas Pedro Salinas y Serrano (27 November 1891 – 4 December 1951) was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27, as well as a university teacher, scholar and literary critic. In 1937, he delivered the Turnbull lectures at Johns Hopkins ...
, and
Jorge Guillén Jorge Guillén Álvarez (; 18 January 18936 February 1984) was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27, a university teacher, a scholar and a literary critic. In 1957-1958, he delivered the Charles Eliot Norton lectures at Harvard Un ...
as masters of poetry.


See also

* Museo Fundación Rafael Alberti * Spanish poetry


Notes


References

* * * * * * ''Rafael Alberti “Todo el mar” (“All the sea”)''. An comprehensive article of Angeliki Kavallierou in the “EI” Magazine of European Art Center (EUARCE) of Greece. First part, issue 6/1994, p. 20,26-33. Second part, issue 7/1994, p. 21-23 https://catalogue.nlg.gr/Record/j.6938


External links


Archivio Conz





Portal de Rafael Alberti
Biblioteca Virtual
Miguel de Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 NS) was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelists. He is best kno ...

Poemas en torno a la creación poética de Rafael Alberti

Poemas de Rafael Alberti



La poesía de Rafael Alberti. Parte de su Obra.

Colección de Poemas

Rafael Alberti - Colección de poemas

Alberti, entre poesías y paseos al enemigo fascista
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alberti, Rafael 1902 births 1999 deaths People from El Puerto de Santa María Spanish people of Italian descent Communist Party of Spain politicians Members of the constituent Congress of Deputies (Spain) Politicians from Cádiz Writers from Andalusia Spanish male poets Spanish male dramatists and playwrights Communist poets Spanish people of the Spanish Civil War (Republican faction) Exiles of the Spanish Civil War in France Generation of '27 Spanish people of Irish descent 20th-century Spanish poets 20th-century Spanish dramatists and playwrights Lenin Peace Prize recipients Premio Cervantes winners Struga Poetry Evenings Golden Wreath laureates Illustrious Citizens of Buenos Aires Exiles of the Spanish Civil War in Argentina Exiles of the Spanish Civil War in Uruguay Spanish magazine founders