About Jorge Guillen
Jorge Guillén, born on January 18, 1893, in Valladolid and died on February 6, 1984, in Malaga, is a Spanish poet of the Generation of 27. Some critics consider him to be the most direct disciple of Juan Ramón Jiménez, due to his penchant for pure poetry.He was thirty-five years old in 1928 when he published his first book, Cántico, in the Revista de Occidente, which then consisted of only 75 poems. It was subsequently expanded in several editions over a period of twenty-three years, as from the beginning, Guillén conceived his work as an organic whole. The definitive edition, published in 1951 in Buenos Aires, contains 334 poems divided into five sections: “Al aire de tu vuelo,” “Las horas situadas,” “El pájaro en la mano,” “Aquí mismo,” and “Pleno ser.” In this work, Guillén exalts existence, the harmony of the cosmos, luminosity, the fullness of being, and the poet's integration into a perfect universe where the loved one and the landscape often merge. Optimism and serenity mark the different poems that make up the book.
In Clamor, Guillén becomes aware of temporality and integrates the negative elements of History: misery, war, pain, death… If Cántico expresses the poet's recognition of the perfection of creation, in Clamor the belief in the perfection of the cosmos is fragmented. Homenaje was published in 1967; in it, Guillén extolled the leading figures in the world of arts and sciences. He published the compilation of his written work up to 1968 under the title Aire nuestro. Then came Y otros poemas in 1973, and Final in 1982.
In 1976, he was the first winner of the Cervantes Prize and, the following year, he received the Alfonso Reyes International Prize.
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