Antonio machado biography

Here, he wrote a series of poems dealing with the death of Leonor which were added to a new and now definitive edition of Campos de Castilla published in along with the first edition of Nuevas canciones. While his earlier poems are in an ornate, Modernist style, with the publication of "Campos de Castilla" he showed an evolution toward greater simplicity, a characteristic that was to distinguish his poetry from then on.

He moved there to be nearer to Madrid, where Manuel lived. The brothers would meet at weekends to work together on a number of plays, the performances of which earned them great popularity. It was here also that Antonio had a secret affair with Pilar de Valderrama , a married woman with three children, to whom he would refer in his work by the name Guiomar.

He collaborated with Rafael Alberti and published articles in his magazine, Octubre , in — The war was to separate him forever from his brother Manuel who was trapped in the Nationalist Francoist zone, and from Valderrama who was in Portugal. Machado was evacuated with his elderly mother and uncle to Valencia , and then to Barcelona in Finally, as Franco closed in on the last Republican strongholds, they were obliged to move across the French border to Collioure.

It was here, on 22 February , that Antonio Machado died, just three days before his mother. Machado is buried in Collioure where he died; Leonor is buried in Soria. On his way to Collioure in December , he wrote "For the strategists, for the politicians, for the historians, all this will be clear: we lost the war. But at a human level I am not so sure: perhaps we won.

He turned away from the hermetic esthetic principles of post-symbolism and cultivated the dynamic openness of social realism. And like his socially conscious colleagues of the Generation of , he emerged from his solitude to contemplate Spain's historical landscape with a sympathetic yet unindulgent eye.

Antonio machado biography

His poetic work begins with the publication of Soledades in In this short volume, many personal links which will characterize his later work are noticeable. The most typical feature of his personality is the antipathetic, softly sorrowful tone that can be felt even when he describes real things or common themes of the time, for example abandoned gardens, old parks or fountains: places which he approaches via memory or dreams.

After Machado's experience with the introspective poetry of his first period, he withdrew from the spectacle of his conflictive personality and undertook to witness the general battle of the "two Spains", each one struggling to gain the ascendancy. In , he published "Campos de Castilla", a collection of poems lyricising the beauty of the Castilian countryside.

Wayfarer, only your footprints are the path, and nothing more; wayfarer, there is no path, you make the path as you walk. As you walk you make the path, and as you turn to glance behind you see the trail that you never shall return to tread again. Wayfarer, there is no path, only wake trails on the sea. Machado's later poems serve as a virtual anthropology of Spain's common people, depicting their collective psychology, social mores, and historical destiny.

He creates this panorama through fundamental myths and recurring, timeless patterns of group behavior. The metaphors from this period employ geographical and topographical references to convey strong judgments about the socio-economic and moral conditions on the Peninsula. His next book, "Nuevas canciones" New Songs , published in , marks the last period of his work.

Poet Geoffrey Hill has hailed him as Montale 's 'grand equal'. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikisource Wikidata item. Spanish poet — For the metro station, see Antonio Machado Madrid Metro. In this Spanish name , the first or paternal surname is Machado and the second or maternal family name is Ruiz.

Leonor Izquierdo. Biography [ edit ]. Major publications [ edit ]. Translations into English selected poems [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. Madrid: Ediciones Taurus. London: Tamesis Books. ISBN Antonio Machado was born in Seville in , the second of five brothers, in the midst of a liberal family. In the whole family moves to Madrid.

He moves to Segovia, wanting to be closer to Madrid, and spends some years contributing to the University of Segovia. In he moved back to Madrid. During the 20's and 30's Machado writes plays in collaboration with his brother Manuel. From there he moves to Barcelona, where he crosses the Pyrenees to Collioure. He dies in Collioure in