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Selección Poética

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Este volumen incluye una selecciòn de su corta pero importante obra poética,y demuestra con sus versos la razón por la cual el autor forma parte de los mejores poetas españoles del siglo XX.

158 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2016

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About the author

Miguel Hernández

269 books183 followers
Miguel Hernández, born in Orihuela (Alicante Province), was a leading 20th century Spanish poet and playwright.

Hernández was born to a poor family and received little formal education; he published his first book of poetry at 23, and gained considerable fame before his death. He spent his childhood as a goatherd and farmhand, and was, for the most part, self-taught, although he did receive basic education from state schools and the Jesuits. He was introduced to literature by friend Ramon Sijé. As a youth, Hernández greatly admired the Spanish Baroque lyric poet Luis de Góngora, who was an influence in his early works. Like many Spanish poets of his era, he was deeply influenced by European vanguard movements, notably by Surrealism. Though Hernández employed novel images and concepts in his verses, he never abandoned classical, popular rhythms and rhymes. Two of his most famous poems were inspired by the death of his friends Ignacio Sánchez Mejías and Ramon Sijé.

Hernández campaigned for the Republic during the Spanish Civil War, writing poetry and addressing troops deployed to the front.

During the Civil War, on the ninth of March in 1937, he married Josefina Manresa Marhuenda, whom he had met in 1933 in Orihuela. His wife inspired him to write most of his romantic work. Their first son, Manuel Ramon, was born on 19 December 1937 but died in infancy on 19 October 1938. Months later came their second son, Manuel Miguel (b. 4 January 1939, d. 1984).

Unlike others, he could not escape Spain after the Republican surrender and was arrested multiple times after the war for his anti-fascist sympathies, and was eventually sentenced to death. His death sentence, however, was commuted to a prison term of 30 years, leading to incarceration in multiple jails under extraordinarily harsh conditions until he eventually succumbed to tuberculosis in 1942. Just before his death, Hernández scrawled his last verse on the wall of the hospital: Goodbye, brothers, comrades, friends: let me take my leave of the sun and the fields. Some of his verses were kept by his jailers.

While in prison, Hernández produced an extraordinary amount of poetry, much of it in the form of simple songs, which the poet collected in his papers and sent to his wife and others. These poems are now known as his Cancionero y romancero de ausencia (Songs and Ballads of Absence). In these works, the poet writes not only of the tragedy of the Spanish Civil War and his own incarceration, but also of the death of an infant son and the struggle of his wife and another son to survive in poverty. The intensity and simplicity of the poems, combined with the extraordinary situation of the poet, give them remarkable power.

Perhaps Hernández's best known poem is "Nanas de cebolla" ("Onion Lullaby"), a reply in verse to a letter from his wife in which she informed him that she was surviving on bread and onions. In the poem, the poet envisions his son breastfeeding on his mother's onion blood (sangre de cebolla), and uses the child's laughter as a counterpoint to the mother's desperation. In this as in other poems, the poet turns his wife's body into a mythic symbol of desperation and hope, of regenerative power desperately needed in a broken Spain.

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5 stars
18 (36%)
4 stars
20 (40%)
3 stars
9 (18%)
2 stars
1 (2%)
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2 (4%)
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
Profile Image for 4nnet7.
67 reviews
November 25, 2023
"La libertad se pudre desplumada en la lengua
de quienes son sus siervos más que sus poseedores."
Profile Image for Jose Alveo.
240 reviews3 followers
August 8, 2018
"Yo sé que ver y oír a un triste enfada,
cuando se viene y va de la alegría,
como un mar meridiano a una bahía
esquiva, cejijunta y desolada.

Lo que he sufrido y nada, todo es nada,
para lo que me queda todavía
que sufrir, el rigor de esa agonía
de abocarme y ver piedra en tu mirada.

Me acallaré, me apartaré (si puedo),
con mi pena constante, instante, plena,
adonde ni has de oírme ni he de verte.

Me voy, amor, me voy, pero me quedo,
pero me voy, desierto y sin arena.
Adiós, amor; adiós hasta la muerte."

Poema llamado "Yo sé que Ver y Oír" de Miguel Hernández. Excelente la selección de sus mejores poemas; entre mis favoritos están: "El Niño Yuntero", "Carta", "No Quiso Ser", "Las Cárceles", y su "Elegía" a su amigo Ramón Sijé. En lo personal, sus poemas tristes son sus mejores y más profundos exaltados en todos los sentidos subjetivamente.
Profile Image for Nathaly.
7 reviews
August 29, 2025
Esperaba un poco más de este conjunto de poemas. Algunos me agradaron, pero ninguno logró emocionarme al leerlo, como sí me ha ocurrido con obras de otros autores. Sin embargo, aunque este poemario no me cautivó demasiado, se lee con rapidez y contiene versos realmente hermosos en algunos de sus poemas.
Profile Image for Luis Román.
140 reviews6 followers
December 21, 2020
Buena selección poética en un libro de bolsillo, un tanto regular pero a un precio muy económico.
28 reviews
July 26, 2021

"Mi vida es una herida de juventud dichosa.
¡Ay de quien no esté herido, de quien jamás se siente herido por la vida, ni en la vida reposa
herido alegremente!"
Profile Image for Martín Russi.
1 review
August 11, 2023
le doy cuatro estrellas porque la edición es una cagada, si fuera solo por miguel hernández se merecía cinco
95 reviews
September 6, 2025
Maravillosa. Quién diga que no le gusta la poesía, simplemente aún lo ha leído aiguel Hernández
Profile Image for Ritna.
124 reviews12 followers
February 14, 2017
Cada vez me confirmo más que me encanta la poesía de Miguel Hernández.
Profile Image for Azul.
42 reviews2 followers
November 15, 2020
La edición es un poco perruna. Por suerte, la poesía de Miguel Hernández es preciosa.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews

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