Main works of Juan Ramón Jiménez

Quote by Juan Ramón Jiménez.

Quote by Juan Ramón Jiménez.

When an Internet user searches for "main works Juan Ramón Jiménez", the results point to his three best-known titles. Namely, The sonorous loneliness (1911) Platero and me (1914) and Diary of a newly married poet (1916). In them it is possible to identify the most notorious features of his style: subjectivity, perfectionism, contemplation, search for eternity and “the beauty of ugliness”.

However, within any literary review it could be very biased to limit itself only to the publications mentioned. After all, these are the lyrics of a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. What's more, in each of its creative stages —Sensitive (1889 - 1915), intellectual (1916 - 1936), and true (1937 - 1958) - published several momentous writings in his time.

The life of Juan Ramón Jiménez

Birth and studies

He was born in Moguer, Spain, on December 23, 1881. His parents, Víctor Jiménez and Purificación Mantecón López-Parejo, were engaged in the wine trade. Little Juan Ramón attended elementary school at the Colegio de Primera y Segunda Enseñanza de San José. Later, he went to the “La Rábida” Institute (Huelva) and studied high school at the San Luis Gonzaga Academy in Puerto de Santa María.

Initially, Jiménez believed that his vocation was painting; With this in mind, he moved to Seville in 1896. However, in a short time he completed his first prose and verse writings and later became a contributor to various Andalusian newspapers and magazines. In parallel, began - by parental imposition - the career of Law at the University of Seville (He left it in 1899).

Depression

In 1900, he moved to Madrid, where he published Nymphaeas y Souls of violet, his first two books. That same year fell into a deep depression after the death of his father and subsequent loss of all family assets in a dispute with the Banco de Bilbao.

Consequently, Jiménez was admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Bordeaux and later to the Sanatorio del Rosario in the Spanish capital. In fact, depression was a frequent illness throughout the poet's life. Especially, after the outbreak of the Civil War with the subsequent consolidation of the Franco dictatorship and the death of a nephew in that warlike conflict.

The heartbreaker

Before becoming a true Casanova, the Andalusian writer was very much in love with Blanca Hernández Pinzón, referred to in his verses as the "white bride." Later, he "did not discriminate" or origin, occupation or marital status for his love affairs. He had them of all kinds: married women, single women, foreigners, and even - according to José A. Exposito, his editor - even with nuns.

Literary stages of Juan Ramón Jiménez

Sensitive stage (1898 - 1915)

Donjuán de Jiménez's experiences were important due to the lyrics that reflect them, especially in Love books (1911-12), structured in 104 poems. This stage was the most prolific of the Huesca writer. In it he reflected the modernist current and the literary symbolism of that time together with the evident influence of Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer.

Likewise, at the end of this stage the French symbolist influence embodied by intellectuals such as Charles Baudelaire or Paul Verlaine, among others. Consequently, in his works there is much relevance of the landscape and idealized resources, where melancholy is a constant feeling.

The sonorous loneliness (1911)

This is one of Jiménez's least studied collections of poems, but no less relevant. Since the forms present in the piece, as well as its content, reaffirm the poet's distancing from the modernist “heritage”. Therefore, this work represents the opening of a very audacious poetic renewal for its time.

Fragment:

“The evening gold is turning pink;

the vegetables are still and the blue is cold;

and in the illusion of the sun, a butterfly flies

elegiac, indolent, transparent "...

Platero and me (1914)

It is considered by academics as one of the most important lyrical texts in Spanish of all time. Likewise, for Jiménez it meant a transitional piece from literary modernism to an expressive form loaded with noble feelings and descriptive density. Thus, Silversmith It sounds like a children's story, but it certainly isn't (claimed by the author himself).

On the other hand, despite the constant references to his native Andalusia and certain personal coincidences, nor is it an autobiographical account. In fact, Jiménez created a truly sublime prose poetry, lacking a chronological order. But time seems to pass eternally forward, where the beginnings and ends are represented by the seasons.

Fragment:

“Platero is small, hairy, soft; so soft on the outside, that one would say that it is made of cotton, without bones. Only the jet mirrors of his eyes are hard like two black glass beetles ”(…)“ He is tender and cuddly just like a boy, like a girl…, but dry and strong inside like a stone ”.

Other works from Jiménez's sensitive stage

  • Rimas (1902)
  • Sad arias (1902)
  • Distant gardens (1904)
  • Melancholy (1912)
  • Maze (1913)

Intellectual stage (1916 - 1936)

In this period - baptized thus by himself - the Andalusian poet was deeply marked by several momentous events. The first, his first expedition to America and the approach towards Anglo-Saxon poetry of authors such as Blake, Yeats, E. Dickinson and Shelley, among others.

The second event was his marriage to Zenobia Camprubí, his faithful companion until his last years. Finally, the sea became a crucial motivation, because for Jiménez the ocean meant life, privacy, solitude, happiness and perpetual present time.

Diary of a newly married poet (1917)

As the name implies, In this work, Jiménez expressed the impact produced by his recently consummated marriage with Camprubí. In the same way, the modernity of New York transformed its conception of the world and led to the emergence of a lyric devoid of ornamental adjectives. Where the use of naked nouns is intended to evoke elementary images.

Additionally, Juan Ramón Jiménez distanced itself from traditional poetic forms to the detriment of a surprising and innovative mix of subgenres (hence its significance). Such a combination symbolized the incessant chaotic bustle of a metropolis full of contrasts. Specifically, in this work the lyrical forms mentioned below coincide:

  • Prose poems
  • Verses
  • Micro stories
  • Axioms
  • Greguerías
  • Extrapoetic writings

Other works from the intellectual stage of Juan Ramón Jiménez

  • Summer (1916)
  • Spiritual sonnets (1917)
  • Eternities (1918)
  • Stone and sky (1919)
  • Beauty (1923)
  • Song (1935)

True stage (1937 - 1958)

It began with the exile of Jiménez with his wife to the American continent due to the Spanish Civil War. Therefore, a change of energy in the lyrics became palpable, a poet very affected and saddened by the events in his country. Accordingly, his creations became more mystical, thoughtful, and spiritual.

To make matters worse, his wife passed away in 1956 after a long battle with cancer.. For this reason, his depression was such that he did not even go to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature obtained a few days before he was widowed. That introspection and desolation accompanied the poet until the day of his death, which occurred on May 29, 1958.

Titles of the true stage of Jiménez

  • Voices from my song (1945)
  • Total station (1946)
  • Coral Gables Romances (1948)
  • Animal background (1949)
  • A meridian hill (1950)

Legend (1978 - post mortem)

This book deserves a special mention because it is the complete revision carried out by Juan Ramón Jiménez himself of his work (1896 - 1956). It was published by Antonio Sánchez Romeralo and subsequently received a corrected edition in 2006 by María Estela Arretche.


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